Bryan's version:

I had known that I had wanted to propose to Amy for a little while but I was waiting for the long weekend when I would have a real day off and could do things properly. I made sure that I had asked her dad first. I had to call him because, of course, he was in Perth and I was in Adelaide. He was at work and when I told him that I wished to know what I would have to do in order to have his daughter to wed he just laughed. He put Lynn, his wife, on the phone and she had a laugh at me too. They thought that it was so nice of me to call and ask. They told me that they approved of me and that there was no problem with me popping the question to their beautiful daughter. Doug did add though that it was his baby and so he would appreciate it if I looked after her and treated her good. I then went and bought the ring so there wasn't really anything left to do but ask.

That night, Thursday night, or it would have been first thing Friday morning really (29th March 2002) I stayed up for a few hours to prepare what I was going to do. It was a long weekend, the Easter Weekend, and it was also 3 months to the date, since we had first met. I though that I might as well take advantage of things and make it significant. I was stuck for ideas at first, which was really bothersome because I wanted the day to be really special for Amy but, after a while, came upon an idea or two. I went to bed after 2:30am and then got up a little after 8am to get things ready before Amy arose. I dressed up in a nice shirt, tie and vest, and then went downstairs to fix Amy some breakfast. Tamera and Sarah, my kid sisters were curious to learn why I was all dressed up at that early hour and I had to shush them, not wanting them to wake Amy up. I didn't want any surprises spoilt. I got to work in the kitchen, cooking bacon, poached eggs, spaghetti and toast. I had found out before hand, cunningly of course, that Amy liked all those things. One has to be careful with Amy when it comes to what she will and wont eat and, of course, I wanted to make things that I knew she would appreciate.

One advantage to having younger sisters is that if they think they are missing out on something they will do anything it takes to get involved. I had Amy and my breakfasts on a tray and my sisters went before me up the stairs to fetch a card table and open Amy's door. Now Amy is usually up when I come to get her, wether it be because I am too slow or because of her internal clock that insists on denying her the pleasure of sleeping in. Today it didn't take her long to realise that something was up and she turned over. Tamera and Sarah were silent, as requested, and they left soon after placing the table and seeing that all was well. Amy and I then had a blessing on the food and got stuck into our breakfast. I may have seemed a little over dressed, especially when compared to Amy in her cow print pyjamas, but it was a special day, it was great Friday. Amy appreciated the breakfast and let me know. She's so good to me, she appreciates everything that I do for her.

When breakfast was over I took all the dishes out and then Amy went to have a shower. I still hadn't finished my day's preparations and so I tried to finish then. Amy came in and tried to see what it was that I was working on but I insisted that she left. I didn't want her to spoil any surprises that I had up my sleeve. Trying to make use of the time Amy went downstairs to do some dishes that we had left from the night before and I rushed to finish. I didn't want Amy working because today was supposed to be a special day for her and when I went down to try and distract her Tamer and Sarah were being loud and difficult. Things soon became trying for me. I helped out with the dishes but with the television on and loudly I had a hard time concentrating and time seemed to drag. Before I knew it, it was noon and we were well overdue leaving.

Tamera and Sarah had been making a lot of comments about me asking Amy to marry me and I was getting pretty annoyed with them. An issue which I have always had to deal with is the fact that when I am trying to surprise someone and show them that I am thoughtful, capable of doing things without reminder, someone usually makes comment or reminds me of what I'm trying to do. I become frustrated because then it isn't obvious that I came up with something all on my own. With the girls pestering about when or wether I should ask Amy to marry me it put me in a mood of not wanting to. I wanted to show them all by not doing anything. Things weren't looking good. So much for my great day.

Finally Amy and I got out of the house and it took a while for me to relax and cheer up. I explained to Amy how I was feeling and let her know that what was bothering me the most was the fact that her day might be spoilt. I wanted today to be exciting for her. Being real tired didn't help either. She assured me that just being with me was all it took to make her happy. She told me that she was sure to be pleased with whatever I had prepared and that she hadn't had a bad morning at all. I really appreciated hearing that and I allowed her to get my mind off the small interruption of the morning.

We drove up to the Morialta Falls recreation park and parked our borrowed Datsun on a free bit of footpath. The place was packed out. Breathing the fresh air and a grumpy old man who grumbled about the true purpose of footpaths helped me to finish gaining my energy and cheer. It was a beautiful day and we set off up a bush track. I love the falls and the park so I was really excited to show Amy. She did her best to keep up as I rushed up the steep path and though I invited her to rest, she pressed on to the top of the cliff. It was a decent hike but we made it in good time. I was excited to show Amy the view from the top and she acted suitably impressed. We sat down on some rocks to eat the lunch she had prepared. I had mother buy a capsicum for her as a surprise. She ate it then.

After eating and getting a photo taken for us by a passing boy we decided to move on to the first falls. We continued all the way around the gorge, stopping every now and then for a pretty view. When we finally got to the bottom of the gorge, back to the car, Amy pulled out the water bottle and I had a drink. She had a good laugh at me as my air conditioning sweat system kicked in. We didn't leave or a bit but stood there talking. When we did leave it was to begin her special activity. When she learnt that the next destination would reveal what it was I had been working on all morning she hopped quickly into the car, excited then to go.

We arrived a little later at the Adelaide Temple and we walked around it. after completing the circuit we sat down on a bench and I pulled out 4 envelopes. They were labelled north, east south and west. I handed north to Amy and she opened it. she wanted to check out the contents but I needed to insist that she didn't, but that she gave me the pieces of paper which were in it. I did give her the first though. On it, it said,

"My beloved Amy, Before you stands the House of the Lord. This magnificent house was planned and constructed under the inspiration of god and has been placed here, north of the city of Adelaide. It is representative of many things and today its meaning will stretch even farther. North of where you are now is the fine city of Brisbane, where we met. Many things happened to the north. There was a temple such as this there too. Today look upon this place as symbolic of the night that you spent with me at Kangaroo Point. We spent the entire night in one another’s company and discovered a lot about who we were before we met. How far we have come since that time. Never forget that night Amy because it didn’t just welcome a new year but it heralded the life we would have together."

My idea was that we would traverse the north side of the city and visit places that would represent some of the things that we did when we were together in Brisbane. The city of Adelaide was the perfect place because it is bordered by 4 terraces, North Terrace, East Terrace, South Terrace and West Terrace. We would visit each side of the city and at various locations we would be able to reminisce about our three months together. Brisbane, where we met, was represented on the north including our first kiss, our dates and the beach visits. The east represented the time when I was in Sydney and we were far apart from one another. West was for the month I then spent in Perth and then South was for Adelaide. It worked perfectly. We drove to the city and then walked the terraces, talking and remembering. I handed out little slips of paper as we went. We walked the city for 4 hours.

It was so much fun and I was pleased with how things were going along. Amy was enjoying remembering and was touched by the time and effort which I had put in. My worries and doubts of the morning were disappearing fast. I especially had fun when we read the one about falling in love because I insisted that she give me her glasses and I took mine off so that when she read 'prepare to be tackled' I was able to grab her and trip her over. Amy is a tough little lady so it wasn't long before she had me somersaulting down the hill and had me pinned. She knows self defence J . All afternoon she was asking if she could carry the bag that I had our stuff in and I had to insist that she couldn't take it. It was needed to later represent doubts that she had about wether she wanted to marry me. I'm so glad that she lost those. In fact, at some point today Amy asked what I thought she would say if I asked and I knew that the answer would be yes.

It was a cool afternoon and things went really well. We ended up in the centre of the city, at Victoria square. There was a water fountain there and I knew that Amy liked that sort of thing. I wanted to hang about there for a bit to try and see if I couldn't trick her into thinking that I was about to propose but she wasn't fooled. I'm too transparent to her. it was late and so we had to figure out what we would have for dinner. I was ashamed that I didn't have a nice restaurant planned, or something nice, but we had come to the end of my cool day plans; our 'Great Friday'. We walked back to the car on West Terrace and there spent a while being indecisive, neither wanting to decide what to eat. Amy eventually got me to settle on KFC (a favourite of mine) and we went to the closest one, south east of the city parklands.

It was a tasty dinner for me but I don't know how much Amy enjoyed her burger. When we left the KFC neither of us had any idea of what to do. We were pretty tired having had a day of walking and little sleep of late so we decided to go home to watch a video. No one was home when we got there so we had the television and couch to ourselves. We finally settled on 'Strictly Ballroom' and Amy curled up to go to sleep J . Usually that's what happens so it's not too imperative that we find a movie that both of us are interested in. as I sat there looking at the face of my beautiful girlfriend I tried to decide what it was that I should do.

I had given thought to proposing to Amy the following day because it would be the 30th of the third (30-03-2002) and such a number combination would be hard for me to forget when I'm old and grey and anniversaries are an issue. However at the same time because I had spent so much effort on making this Friday the special day I knew that I had to somehow connect the two. I planned then that I would propose to her tonight but do it after midnight. Amy's mother had given us a general curfew of midnight each night so it wasn't hard to get her off to bed when the time came. The movie was over and we had already read our Scriptures so it was just a matter of saying our evening prayer and going to our rooms. I was so excited about the ideas in my head that I was in a bit of a rush to leave her when she had been tucked into her bed. Normally I hang about for a few minutes but tonight I scooted off as soon as I could. I put some music on to disguise any noises that I made and left my light on to discourage Amy from sneaking out of her room for any reason. I dressed up in her favourite shirt and pants, grabbed her ring from where I had hidden it in my cupboard and left my room.

I had the CD which had 'our' songs on it and grabbed my sisters CD player quietly from her room. With those thongs in hand I left the house and went out the back. Outside of the room Amy was in there is a nice lawn and so I decided that I would propose to her there. I put the stereo on by her window, playing 'Hero' by Enrique Iglesias and waited. She was supposed to hear the music, look out her window and then come outside when she saw me there. No movement of the curtain got me a little worried and I moved the stereo closer. I didn't want to have to turn it up cause it might wake up someone and tonight, I didn't want a third person involved. It was enough that M'Buddy, my dog, was hopping about wanting to know what I was doing.

Just when I was getting to the point of scratching on the window a curly topped head popped through the curtains. My baby didn't take long to catch on. A few moments later Amy came out, in her pyjamas, and without a word, walked right into my embrace. I had the song play twice and we danced in the light of a full moon. Clouds drifted across the face of the moon but it was still very light outside. When the song had ended we stood there for a few moments, not speaking. I was grateful to Amy for not speaking because I had a few things to say.

I began by telling her how I felt about her, all the wonderful things that I had found in her. Then, I moved on to tell her all the little things that I could offer her if we were to be together for 'longer than a million days'. I wanted so much to look after her, to serve and worship her, and I couldn't not tell her. When I ran out of things to say I knew that it was time to get on my knee. I was hoping hat the moon would be full so that when I pulled out the ring it would look really pretty but the clouds refused to be considerate and I became too impatient. I got down on my right knee and, ring now in hand, looked up at her and asked, "Amy Louise Jordan, will you marry me?"

She had a cute little smile on her face and quietly she said, "Yes." My heart was beating pretty fast by this time but I managed enough dexterity to put the ring on her finger. I stood then and we hugged for a while. I couldn't quite comprehend what had just happened but knew that I should be excited and so I let go then and jumped around excitedly, "We're getting married, we're getting married!" We stayed out there for a while, even though it was cold for Amy who wasn't wearing any socks, talking about how it felt to no longer have to skirt the subject. I love her and she loves me. We're going to be together forever! YAHOOO!

We went inside at 2am and called her mother who was pretty excited to hear the news. She was under direction not to tell anyone so that Amy could tell them all when she got home on Sunday. I received congratulations from her mother and father and the smile on my face was pretty big. When we hung up from them I put Amy to bed properly. It's such a neat thing to know that I will never have to stop loving the woman before me. Amy is so perfect for me and I'm the luckiest man alive for finding her. Though there had been a slight interruption to it being a good day, all in all it had turned out quite nicely. I'm engaged!

Bryan

Amy's Version:
Ok so I’m not going to run through the whole thing, because you just  go that with Bryan… I’m simply going to correct a few points…

The “M” word, was a taboo subject for both of us, even though it was pretty much apparent that we both wanted to spend eternity together. I decided back when Bryan spent a month in Perth that I wanted to marry him and I knew that he pretty much felt the same way, but due to past experiences was a little scared. That’s ok, I could understand that.

When Bryan returned home to Adelaide and we missed each other immensely, our taboo subject became not so much taboo as we would talk about it in a round a bout way, generally using the “What if…” scenario and “If we were together for more than a million days…” We talked about this so much that when I finally arrived in Adelaide it was pretty much common opinion to the people of both Perth and Adelaide, that we would be together forever, it was just a matter of how long it would be until Bryan had asked.

The first few days passed uneventfully, with his family making comments that would put us both slightly in awkward positions, and friends doing similar things. One day Bryan guided me towards a Jewellery store and used the scenario that he had “a friend of a friend” who was looking at buying a ring, what was my opinion, what did I like. This began several days of looking and searching and even… trying the rings on.

I knew Bryan was in 2 minds about the situation and whether or not he should ask me, or wait until we were together again, and so on Thursday when we were in the city and he wanted me to walk ahead so he could be alone to think for a little while, I played along happily. Until that is… I realised that Bryan was no longer behind me – he had left me! This would have been fine, had I had my mobile with me or if he had had his turned on! Luckily for me, I still had my wallet and once I thought I knew where he might be, I sat down to wait for him to find me, knowing that he had a lecture beginning at that time. He soon came and found me and tried to explain his reasons for leaving. I didn’t mind… I just wished he had let me know so I could have enjoyed my time in the city more!!

On Friday morning, yes, Bryan woke me up with a beautiful breakfast in bed. The morning began not so well, as he became distracted by his sisters and the current situation. Patiently, I let him have his time, while I helped him by doing some dishes. When we finally were able to leave the house, I knew it was my job to cheer him up and attempted to do this, in the way that I knew how, showing him that I loved him.

Our trip to the Morialta Falls was in general, an enjoyable one. Despite the lack of fitness that I currently have… or do not have, Bryan was the perfect gentleman in encouraging me, yet allowing me to rest. Being independent and stubborn, I pushed on and we made it to the first lookout, to where I wanted to continue on more. It was here at our first stop that we ate some lunch and I appreciated Bryan’s efforts to purchase my favourite sort of capsicum. He is very thoughtful.

The day continued as Bryan has explained, on a walking remembrance tour of the city, symbolic of our 3 months together. It was a very enjoyable tour, however Bryan had the ability to constantly bring tears to my eyes, but also make me very happy. It was an emotional afternoon, thinking of all that we had been through, and the time that we had spent together.

When Bryan’s plans came to a close, I was a little surprised that he had not planned something for dinner, as the days events and conversations had foreshadowed the events that were to come that night. However, I wondered if it just meant he planned on completing things the following day. So we bought some dinner, and a Cadbury Dream Egg McFlurry, and returned home to “watch a video”. I attempted to stay awake, but things got too much for me, and so I enjoyed the comfort of Bryan holding me while I slept. At our curfew of Midnight, he put me to bed, a little too quick I thought. He was quite abrupt, not rude, but our general order of things was out, and he was quick to exit my room.

When I heard our song playing loud and clear, my heart melted. After listening for about a minute, I decided that I couldn’t take it anymore – I had to give him a hug! With my hand on the door handle, I realised that the music was not coming from inside, but from outside! Kneeling on my bed, I pulled back the curtains to see Bryan all dressed up, outside my room playing our song and motioning for me to join him. I knew exactly what he was doing. So, still dressed in my cow pants, daggy shirt and Bryan’s jumper that is way too big for me, I made my way outside to where we danced in the moonlight.

After standing there hugging for some time, he began talking to me, and because I knew what was going on, I decided to make it easy on him. I haven’t always made things easy for him, and those of you who know how I treated him in Brisbane, will know that I wasn’t so good. So I stayed silent, even when I wanted to say something, or compliment him back, I let him have this time. When it became apparent that he had said almost all he wanted to, he glanced up at the sky every few moments, and repeated several things he had already said. By that time, I was getting a little impatient. My feet were cold, and something I’d eaten that night didn’t agree with me, but I didn’t say anything, I just continued to lean on Bryan for support. Eventually, Bryan got down on one knee and…. Yes … he proposed.

After my reply and Bryan’s slipping the ring on my finger, we hugged, until it became apparent that we could no longer do that. Neither of us could comprehend what had just happened, yet the excitement that built up inside of us, finally erupted, and for once, it was Bryan who pulled away and started dancing around and acting all silly. We re-enacted some positions, for photos, and sat, stood, dance, and lay around, trying to grasp the implications of those few words. OH how much we loved each other!

So that’s the end of the “How did he propose” story, but I still think that the best bit came the next morning when Bryan was awoken by his mother who wanted to know if he had done it. Bryan’s reply was no! A few minutes later when I awoke, Bryan told me what he’d done, and so we went downstairs acting as if nothing was different. I got a drink, sat down and told them all about our exciting day, eating some breakfast, and all the while, flashing the ring around!!!! Only, no one said anything! Both of his parents, and 2 of his younger sisters were there, but no one said anything. Tamera noticed the ring, and I knew this, but still, she didn’t say a word!!

When people started departing for the day, Bryan’s parents surprised and somewhat annoyed that he hadn’t done it, thinking he was looking for too perfect a moment, we decided to have it out. Bryan’s parents were on the stairs when Bryan looked at me casually as I stood next to him eating some toast, “Amy, will you marry me?” His Mum spun around and blurted out, “BRYAN!!!” appalled, at the way in which he had done it. Bryan’s reply was, “Oh, sorry.” And he got down on one knee and said again, “Amy Louise, will you marry me?” We looked at his mother who was still shocked, and she said, “Well, answer him!!!” I looked at Bryan said yes, and flashed my hand around as Bryan and I burst out laughing. His parents raced down the stairs to congratulate us and the next 20 minutes were spent discussing the mornings events and laughing at how observative she wasn’t!!! It was so much fun.

Amy