The Reason For The Lack Of Question (WARNING: MUSHY!)

I wonder how many people have their doubts about me n Ryan working out. I know some of my family does. That's okay, when I first met him- hell, up until this last 6 months or so- I couldn't think of him ever being anything but the eternal bachelor. It's understandable.
There's ways, though, that I know that he is not another passing thing. For one thing, this guy has put up with me- and, more importantly, refused to give up on me- for nearly five years now. He's given me the key to his house, he's given me passwords, anything that was necessary, and plenty of things that were just to help me. He's told me he wanted to marry me for the past two years. I laughed at him, shot him down, and, at some point told him- explicitly- what he was doing that made me laugh at him and shoot him down. You know what he did? He got his crap together, fixed those things, and then came back and said 'You know what? No ones ever asked me to change those things, no one's ever cared that much. I want to marry you.' He wasn't joking. He's not budging. The man I thought was single for life, and completely wild, has proven to be the most wonderful, loving, sweet, goofy man I ever met. He makes dealing with me look easy. He does it better than I do! I can look at a single picture of him and think how good looking he is and how incredibly sweet he can be. I have told him things that would have given any other man I've dated heart attacks. I've tried to run once- he wasn't having it. He was more patient than I have ever seen a man be, and opened up to me and explained things I never could have understood. He told me things I had never had a man explain to me before. It's been two years since I've seen him, and I can still remember how it feels when he hugs me, what it felt like to fall asleep next to him watching Walk The Line, and what it felt like to stay at the hospital with him, holding his hand, the entire night- and never once hear him correct the nurse about me (not) being his girlfriend. I'll never forget the look on his face when he was in pain from the kidney stones, or the look of pride on his face as he watched his daughter perform in front of her school. He hasn't forgotten anything either- which he insists on taunting me with on a regular enough basis that I'm scared of the day he comes to his first FRG meeting with my chain of command.
It's understandable that people who are protective of me question this. It's not "normal" but it makes a whole lot more sense than anything else I've done in my life.
I love him.