Chapter 4 - Mission Call and Dad's Birthday

I was in the middle of my first University finals week and I was definitely not having the best time in my life. It was my Dad's 50th birthday when my parents got their mission call. I was almost in a panic when I heard where they were going. At the young age of 19, my parents were going half way around the world to Ukraine for 1.5 years. If their call was in the United States it would have been a little less traumatic for me.

I was young and without Endrit displaying any interest in proposing and making sure that I knew he would be around to take care of me and my parents literally being over a day's travel away I was starting to feel abandoned. I knew that I could take care of myself as I had been doing for months, but until that point I always had someone to talk to and be there if I needed to have someone take care of me. Even though I had only been dating Endrit for 4 months I wanted to at least be engaged before my parents left to have that stability.

We went to my parent's house after finals were over to celebrate my Dad's birthday. It was a fun time. I cornered my mom to ask what I should do about Endrit's culture to wait forever to get engaged. At that point I didn't want to pressure Endrit to get engaged because of the fear that he would break it off rather than go onto the next step.

My parents were as worried as I was about someone being there to be able to take care of me. At that point I was having major sinus troubles where sometimes I would pass out and stay asleep for hours upon hours. They wanted to make sure I was taken care of while they were half way around the world. My Dad didn't really know what to do. My mom and I just told him to take Endrit aside and ask what his intentions were.

Right before Endrit and I were going back to Pocatello my Dad finally pulled Endrit aside and took him into the office for a private conversation. They were not in there for too long but my mom and I were still on pins and needles. Well, maybe she wasn't but I definately was. Was I about to be engaged? I wanted to be so badly. The door opened and Endrit walked out with a happy look on his face and my Dad gave me a thumbs up. We walked out the door and my Mom told me to give her a call when I got home with kind of a wink wink hint hint kind of tone.

Even though my Dad gave me the thumbs up, I was nervous as I got into the car. Happy Birthday Dad! Your youngest is getting engaged.