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So quick recap: K and I started dating March, my parents came to visit and met him in April . May rolls around, K is graduating from business school and it's my turn to meet the family !
A few weeks to the graduation, K's mom calls him and in the course of conversation with him, she realizes she taught my mom in secondary school at Methodist Girls High School in Lagos Nigeria. For a fleeting moment, I instantly thought wait until mom hears this; a wave of nostalgia swept over me; I wished my mom could be right there.
The conversation shifted to what we would wear for the graduation ceremony and K hands over the phone to me so that the women could talk. K's mom says, "we have chosen to wear pink lace, do you have any or should I have something made for you." I responded in the affirmative and it was set - We would be wearing pink lace for K's graduation. FYI we meant: me, his mom, his sister, his sis-in-law and his sis-in-law's sister.
The date of the graduation finally arrived and I was a ball of nerves. K asked me to make some J-rice and chicken so that they would have some food to eat when they arrived the day before the graduation. Gosh ! I felt like it was a cooking exam, I felt the food had to be perfect.
The day before, I woke up early and headed to my hair braiding appointment. When that was done, I proceeded to my apartment, got the food ready - drove over to K's place set up the stuff and it was off to the airport.
We made our way to baggage claim to meet them after we arrived at the airport. As we got closer to the baggage claim and I made eye contact with K's mom - it was my turn to drop to my knees and "kunle" (kneel down) to greet her. So right there in the middle of the airport, I just knelt down for what seemed like forever (although it was probably just a few seconds) before she got to me and said I should get up.
They loved the food and I got compliments. I was thrilled!
The next day was graduation day, so I met them all at K's apartment so we could head over to the graduation. I arrived in my pink lace and my own matching gele. After we arrived at the ceremony, K's mom realized I had tied my own gele, which did not match the rest of the entourage, and she hastily handed me her "ipele" and said "how will they know we are all one family, if we are not matching ?" I obliged and K's sis tied my newly acquired head-tie and we all matched. It was truly beautiful... This would not be complete without a picture:
At the end my meeting the family went well and the journey continued....
So barely a month after K and I started dating, my parents decided they were coming to visit in Pittsburgh. K decided he wanted to meet them and my parents obliged.
My dad is a pastor, so the pastor of my church requested that he preach at the mid-week Wednesday service. So K and I decided that he would come over to my apartment after the service to officially meet the parents.
So the Wednesday service rolled around and my dad preached, the message was great and everyone seemed to love it. After the service, I took K up to greet my parents. Now my parents are more on the non-traditional side and my dad had his hand out for a handshake but K was nowhere to be found. We looked around and K was flat on the ground prostrating to greet my parents as is the most formal greeting a man does in the Yoruba culture!
Later on that evening, K came over for dinner bearing gifts for my mom. She was thrilled ! He excused himself briefly and as soon as K stepped out, my dad starts cracking up and his says "E ni to ba fe tele tutu, a da mi si waju", which translates literally "one who wants to walk on cold ground will pour water ahead" but the actual meaning is that "one who had a goal in mind will prepare the way ahead of him". Apparently as far as my dad was concerned, with the prostrating and the gifts for my mom, K was preparing the way to ask my dad for my hand.
Anyway, it was a really short visit and two days later, my parents were leaving and K offered to take them to the airport in his car. K was in business school at the time and had recently been interviewed and featured in the recruiting brochure. K decided to make himself look good and strategically placed a few copies on the back seat of his car.
Of course my parents opened up the brochures, and my mom started oohing and aahing about K being in the brochure. My dad on the other hand was very business like and started quizzing K about his choice to go to b-school, his concentrations etc. It was like an interview and K of course had all his answers ready.
It was a great visit and of course, K charmed his way into my parents hearts :)
Malta is the location we've chosen for our destination wedding for the summer of 2011.
The journey to Malta un-officially began earlier this year in Rome when we took a trip there for my birthday. Here's how it began:
Pretty much all my friends were convinced he would propose. I have to admit it, the thought did cross my mind but I refused to entertain it as I didn't want to get all excited and expectant only to be disappointed.
Anyway one of my friends E said to make sure that I should eat my birthday dinner dessert carefully in the event he had the restaurant put the ring in there - to which I responded that's too cliché.
Well to humor all my friends, I didn't say anything to him and I decided to wait through my birthday trip and dinner to let him know.
So after I carefully ate my dessert I was like oh well I guess there's not a ring in here - I then told him of the various people who were convinced he would propose.
We both started laughing and he said, " I did think about it but couldn't find the perfect size ring :) "
So I guess my friends were half right. The rest of the conversation went like this:
K - but you do know we're getting married next July right ?
Me - oh really? nope I didn't
K - so feel free to start planning :)
Me - ok .....
Over the past several months, we had begun to actively work towards planning our future together, we purchased our first home together (details will follow later) and discussed our intentions with our parents.
A few weeks ago, his mom called my dad to officially initiate the discussions and we can now officially begin to plan for Malta. My father has declared himself the CEO of all wedding planning activities!
However, I am yet to officially receive my ring ;) I'm going to London to visit for a while at the end of this week, so stay tuned...
