Well, to those of you who thought we would never do it : We did. To those of you who thought that it would not happen : It did. To those of you who hoped she would never say yes : She did ! After being together for over eight years me and Saskia thought it was time to take our relationship to the next level. So just like a knight of the old code would do, I got down on one knee and asked the perfect girl to marry me. And she said yess. We have been through so much together, this does not change anything between us. We don't feel more secure then we did before and frankly (as with all things) we have our own philosofy behind this. Our 'engagement' is more a signal to the outside world, that we have found our soulmate, then anything else. We knew then as we know know we are made for eachother and make eachother happy. This ring is more a signal to the outside world then a reassurance of our own relationship. Some reactions of the people around us gave me a very interesting insight into how our relationship was percieved by the outside world. " I don't see why you should get married " a friend of us said. And quite frankly he was right. Why should we ? And just because of that, we can. For if you have a reason to get married , you presumably need your marriage to re-assure you in your relationship. We don't need that, and just because we don't , we do it anyway. " I thought you where engaged a long time ago" another friend said. I thought that was the nicest comment 🙂 It gave me a new insight into how people saw us together. And the classic is of course 'I thought you said you would never get married." And that comment is also justified. We did say we would never get married. And we"ll stick by that. We won't get married the "average way" (white dress , church etc) and we won't get married a 'special way' ( driving to the church in 25 identical mini's ) We'll probably marry someday 'our way'. And thats quite hard to explain. To us this engagement is not about tying the knot. It has been tied years ago. Its giving the outside world a clear signal that we belong together (and also telling some bachelors and bachelorettes to 'lay off') Its our way of telling the outside world we have chosen eachother and want to make it public. And for ourselves its just a question , a ring , a smile and a tear of joy. No big deal, no big change, no big next step. Its just another day where we let the outside world SEE that we have sealed our packed a long time ago.