I went to visit the blog Baraita, because the author hadn't updated in so long I was afraid she had quit, and I wanted to blogroll her. There was a new post about her engagment to be married, to a fellow she met over a Shabbat meal! Okay!
So we went to a lot more services, listened to each other read Torah almost every week, started deliberately counterharmonizing during the Aleinu as well as the Birkat***, spent a lot more time together in between services, and introduced our parents to each other at Thanksgiving (told you I was displacing anxiety about kashrut ). Everyone was appropriately fond of each other -- happily, D.'s parents are wonderful people independent of their son -- so we proceeded with the next phase of our plan, which involved quite a bit of advance work. D. flew out to Coast City to join us at Aunt Miriam's a few days before New Year's, and on December 30th we made it up to Gotham to visit his grandparents. On New Year's Eve, my entire immediate-extended family had Shabbat dinner at Aunt Miriam's, and D. and I talked them into concluding with the full Birkat, which I led. Then -- before anyone could doff their headgear -- D. told everyone the story of how the Birkat had featured in our courtship, and he worked around to talking about his great-grandparents (who have nothing at all to do with the Birkat, but some of my relatives were starting to catch on at this point), and finally he gave me his great-grandmother's engagement ring.
Wow! Is that great or what! I don't even know this woman and I am feeling the naches about now! Mazal Tov!
Now of course Shabbat meals are where everyone meets her beshert, I know that. I met my husband at a shabbat meal, myself. I just dig happy endings, or happy beginnings, don't you?
Comments