Our story started a short (not so very short) 7 years ago. I (Caleb) had just moved back to the states from Papua New Guinea. My parent’s home church was a small church called Jenison Bible Church and Emily was in the youth group at that church. I started attending youth group, and sought to find friends, but was having a difficult time. Emily was one of the few people that was friendly to me, and that meant a lot to me.


I wasn’t following the Lord at the time and Emily was very rooted in herself and in the Lord, and that was very evident to me. Our friendship started through me asking her questions about faith and who God was and through that all, Emily remained constant and steadfast and that resonated with me. I continued to text Emily, seeking answers, help, and at the simplest, a good friend. BUT then God had other plans and led me and my family back to Papua New Guinea to continue my parents work.

Just before we left, I had felt that Emily had become one of my closest friends during that time and was my best friend through that year. We had gone out for coffees just to talk and have community, and long late night conversations over text about faith and who God was. It was all just a way to talk to each other more. THEN, my DUMB brain decided it would be a good idea to ask Emily out a couple weeks before we left back to Papua New Guinea. What makes that even better, I decided to ask her out over text. Great idea right! 


Psych, it was a terrible idea, but the Lord had other plans. I believe the exact text that I sent was “Hey, I think we could be more than friends” and she kindly told me that we should just stay friends. Not the brightest move by me, but what stood out to Emily and I, was that our friendship never changed. We just continued on as we always had, and we never lost the friendship!

Fast forward, six years later, Emily and I are still as close as we ever were. Still going out for coffee, still chatting about every day life, and still connecting. But this time it was different. This time I had a very clear vision of where the Lord was leading me. This time I saw more in those connections, and this time I heard the Lord saying do you trust me with your future. 


It all led to a fateful night for us both. It was a New Years/Christmas party that we were attending, and after the party, we just sat chatting about where the lord was leading us, and how we felt the Lord’s call on our lives was for over an hour. In that time we both felt connections that we hadn’t quite noticed before as to what the future held for both of us.



A week later, after quite a bit of prayer and questions about myself, I decided that I would take my shot once again. I told Emily that we needed to talk. It was originally planned as a coffee meet, but because the coffee shop was closed, we walked through Barnes and Noble just looking at and talking about books as it’s one of our favorite things for over three hours.


Afterwards I asked her out and she decided it was a good time to point out the pretty Christmas lights in the mall. That fateful day, I asked her out. Five days later, when she said yes, our lives were changed forever.

Six months later, I started planning how to ask Emily to be my bride. 



To start off with, Emily had won a free engagement photo shoot with a professional photographer, and they were trying to schedule a time for that and I told them by November. This meant I HAD TO START. I wasn’t too stressed until after that. I got everything planned… Orrr so I thought. 



I originally scheduled on a Friday. The photographer cancelled two days before. I rescheduled with some friends for Saturday, and then they cancelled last minute. I rescheduled once again for Sunday afternoon to go to Robinnettes with friends, and they, once again, cancelled last minute. FINALLY, Saturday, the day before I proposed, I rescheduled with Sarah, Emily’s sister, and our family friend Rylee, who takes photos, and we got something planned. 



I took Emily to Tunnel Park and on the way I played her a playlist of songs that related to our relationship on the drive. Neither of us had walked through the tunnel, so we walked under the tunnel and sat on some benches under the guise that we were going to watch the sunset which was nonexistent that day. We sat there for about 10 minutes, my hands were sweating and my heart was racing, anticipating the moment and what to say. I turned around, and Rylee was beckoning me to get a move on. Then and there, I asked Emily to marry me. She said FINALLYY… which was followed by a yes. Now we are excited to start living our happily ever after.