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The sun is rising directly in front of us as we drive toward the east coast. I'm hanging my arm out the window trying to get one good shot of the sunrise without...

I'm hanging my arm out the window trying to get one good shot of the sunrise without dropping my camera. As I roll up the window he says, "Hey, wanna get our picture in front of the castle when we go in?" "Definitely!" I say. Matthew and I were driving to Daytona for his grandmother's 75th birthday party and were excited to be stopping at Disney World on the way. Matthew's best friend Jimmy is able to get free passes, so the three of us have had a blast there quite often -- I expected today to be no different.

We were almost to our exit when we came up over a hill and Matthew said, "Misti, look!" Floating directly in front of us is a hot-air balloon with a huge seahorse printed on it. This, Matthew knows, is significant to me. I consider seahorses a sign that my mother is with me. She passed away when I was 20, when Matthew and I were only four months into our relationship. She loved seahorses. They were her "thing." I wouldn't find out until later how meaningful this really was.

After meeting Jimmy for a quick breakfast, we arrived at the Magic Kingdom. Matthew and I were hand in hand, with Cinderella's castle directly ahead as the three of us began down Main Street among the crowds, music and the aroma of our favorite candy store. As we get closer Matthew sighs. "Ugh! There's a show in front of the castle!" "No big deal, let's ride Space Mountain and come back," Jimmy says. After the ride, we headed back to the castle. The show was over so I handed Jimmy my camera. Matthew and I posed at the steps of Cinderella's castle.

Jimmy continued to snap pictures as Matthew turned to me and said, "Wait a minute." He takes both of my hands in his and holds them near his heart; I can feel him shaking a little. My heart starts to pound. He says, "We've been together for 5 ½ years. You are my best friend, soul mate, lover and partner. I don't want to wake up another morning without knowing we're going to spend the rest of our lives together." He gets down on one knee, and says, "Misti Michelle, will you marry me?" "YES!" I yelled as I dropped to my knees to kiss my future husband. "YES!" I exclaimed again, as applause erupted around us.

As he put that ring on my finger I said, "Oh my god Matthew, this is the best proposal EVER!!!" I later found out that during the two months that Matthew was secretly planning the engagement, he had been asking my mother for a sign of his own. The seahorse we saw on the hot-air balloon earlier was not only a sign to me. It was also the blessing that he had been asking her for.