True Love and Tractors

It's official; Alan Burke Adams and Emily Ann Bush are getting married! Here is the written account of how the proposal came to be!

Burke and I decided over a month ago that we wanted to share our lives together and once we discovered my international siblings could be home to celebrate with us in the month of June, we decided to get a move on things. This past week I was able to book the Logan Temple for June 6th and a couple of days later I even bought a wedding dress! Burke was supportive, but flustered that so many plans were moving forward without a ring on my finger. It is difficult being so far away from one another and I figured that the official proposal would take place when I went down to visit his family for conference weekend in April. Unbeknown to me, Burke did not want to wait that long! He purchased a ring in St. George on Thursday and while we talked on the phone that night he had me convinced that he would not be able to make it up to Logan until late Saturday night due to his cousin's baptism. In reality he awoke early Friday morning and drove all the way to Logan to surprise me, not just with his presence, but with the most important question I will ever be asked in my life!



Meanwhile, I was hard at work waitressing at Firehouse Pizzeria and completely unaware that my sweetheart was just 3 miles away, sitting at my kitchen table, brainstorming a variety of clever ways to ask the question with the aid of my mother. As a side note: a reoccurring theme in our relationship has been tractors. Early on Burke confessed his devotion to John Deere by declaring, "I bleed green!" So, in order to make him feel at home the first time he made the long drive from St. George to Logan to visit me back in December, I put a John Deere miniature tractor on his bed with a note that said,

"Deere Burke,

Welcome to the farm!"

Following this visit Cassie took pictures of me in cowgirl apparel, posing on John Deere tractors that I then used to make him a Christmas card. These events, as well as many inside tractor jokes led Burke to conclude a tractor was a MUST for the proposal.

Mumsie picked me up from work a few hours later, suggesting that we go to Zollinger's Tree Farm just up the road from our house to look at potential plants for the reception. I was tired from my shift and agreed without much enthusiasm. As we got out of the car, I removed my stain-covered apron and tried to smooth my frazzled hair. I could feel the cloud of foccacia bread smell clinging to my body from the restaurant and craved nothing more than a hot shower. Sister Dana Zollinger was standing nearby and offered to fetch Brother Ron Zollinger for us and off she trotted up the dirt road. Adrianne, the Zollinger's gentle daughter, was also standing in the yard with a camera in hand. I remember thinking it was strange that she was taking pictures of dead trees, shivering in the cold March wind and waving her hand in greeting. We all convened near a shed, making small talk until Ron walked up with a huge grin on his face. Just then the putter of an engine was heard. I turned around and to my great astonishment who should be bouncing his way down the dirt road of the farm, but my knight in shinning armour on a tractor steed!

I instantly knew there could be only one reason for this unexpected entry (probably a little tipped off because Adrianne was going crazy with the camera!) and the joy I felt as he descended from the tractor to sweep me into his arms is beyond description! After a quick embrace he dropped to one knee in the muddy road, a smooth red ring box in hand and stared up at me with shining eyes. He stalled there for a minute, then began to rise with a confused look on his face and asked, "Well?" He was so nervous he had forgot to ask the question!! I laughed and replied, "Well, aren't you going to ask me something?" He dropped back to the ground and asked me with a grin on his face, "Will you marry me Emily Ann?" The answer of course, was..."YES OF COURSE!"

It was an amazing moment and I will never forget the absolute conviction I felt that my life with Burke will be one filled with absolute joy! He is my sweetheart, my best friend, and the one person who makes me complete inside and out! I love him with all that I have and I can hardly wait until June 6th when we will be sealed together for time and all eternity!

As Dante said:

"Remember today, for it is the beginning of always."

I will certainly never forget Friday, March 27, 2009.