Our story begins technically in the Summer of 2022 at our campus ministry, the UGA Wesley Foundation. The first part of this story is told primarily through Hannah's perspective, as I (Ben) do not remember it super well myself...



Picture this, the Wesley main chapel. If you've never been, it look's something like the picture below... well actually exactly like it- that is it! Anyways, I had come to a summer Wesley service with one of my friends, Justin Peterson, and we were standing in the back greeting friends and still getting to our seats and I noticed a girl walk in that looked familiar. We had both been added to a group chat "First Year Interns" for the upcoming school year and I recognized her face (maybe I thought she looked funny, maybe I thought she was just beautiful, maybe I had just stalked everyone added to the chat.... who knows?).

Hannah tells the story in the way that I approached her and introduced myself and asked if she was one of the incoming interns like me and if she had completed any of her summer reading. She says we talked about it for a minute then one of her friends came in and (this is the part I remember) Hannah and her friend both turned away from me and that was the end of that conversation! And it was love at first sight!! The end. Just kidding.

Throughout the service, and I'm outing myself here a little, I remember glancing over at Hannah pretty often. I was really enjoying the worship service and the message that was being taught that night (please don't ask me what it was) but she had just stood out to me.

A few weeks had gone by and I remember still thinking periodically about Hannah but my mind was primarily taken up by the school year about to begin (my senior year of college!) and also by coming on staff at Wesley as an intern! August was a busy month after all! For some of you, you may recall seeing many texts or emails from me as I began this stage of ministry! (thank you for enduring all of those and supporting me)

Hannah and I began talking more frequently as our first year intern cohort began to spend more time together for work, worship, and even just becoming friends and a little family. It was early in the semester that I got really sick, likely just from being around so many people all of a sudden and shortly before I had gotten sick, we had just finished our two weeks of staff training. At this staff training we were all given manuals with lots of important details, good stuff to know, and I had not taken notes as well as Hannah so during the training I asked if I could borrow her manual for the night to catch up on notes!



For the next few days I was at home sick and so I thought "what better opportunity than now to reach out to Hannah" and so I was incredibly smooth in doing so. I did not have Hannah's number since we weren't all that close so I did what any smooth man would do: I pulled up the staff directory, found her name, and typed her number straight into an iMessage from the big spreadsheet directory! And they say getting a girls number is scary.

Our first conversations weren't all that, it began with me apologizing for still having her manual and that was generally it. But it set a stage for when I came back to Wesley, no longer sick, and to a specific event where I was finishing up some support letters I was sending out after work one day!



Sitting in the intern office, as we called it, I was at a table and somehow or another Hannah and up staying to help me. I say she had a crush on me, she recalls feeling bad for me working alone- who knows? From here, I kinda 'owed' her as the letters got done and had beautiful handwriting on the outside (as you may have noticed).



Skipping ahead through lots of small interactions, a car ride with a good mutual friend to be (shout out to Cam Pace), my writing her essay, etc...

There was a Tuesday evening in late August that I attended Hannah's ministry area meeting, Encounter. The night was great and I learned a lot and was able to meet lots of students and see a different aspect of our campus ministry but for the sake of this story, near the end of the night I was hanging around as Hannah, and the other Encounter interns were wrapping up.

Hannah was talking to one of her friends, Alexis Farmer, about swing dancing that night at the IM field's parking deck but didn't have a partner. Alexis ended up joking (but I believe setting me up) that Hannah could always take me so I counter offered with 'if Hannah bought me food, I would go' - and Hannah joyfully (reluctantly outwardly) agreed! We ended up getting McDonalds on the way there, I learned how to swing dance, and we hung out together until like midnight that night. admittedly, neither of us made a move or mentioned a thing - just enjoyed each other's company and the cold nuggets after lots of dancing. Thank you, Alexis.

Three days later on Thursday, September 1st, I was sitting in the couch room of the Wesley building, just picture lots of old couches and a pretty, big window looking into the alley between our two buildings!

I had been talking to a couple of my friends in there and maybe wanting to hangout with Hannah, to see if we should go on an actual date. I had offered earlier that day to drive Hannah to class since she was running late and I mentioned this to my friends, they encouraged that I offer to take her to Pelican's Snoballs and pick her up after class... so I nervously texted her. And she said yes!

I picked her up from class around 5:30 that day and we went to Pelican's where she proceeded to buy her own snow cone since "it's not a date" and we chatted outside for a few hours, about life, interning, theology, Taylor Swift, Morgan County being better than Greene, lots of things. (Ask Hannah what's the largest animal she could take on to fight!)

As the night got later I mentioned being hungry and she said she would go eat with me so our hangout, "not a date", continued. We ate at Chick Fil A of course, (enjoy the photo below), and hung out in my car for a bit just continuing discussion and watching Hannah's favorite music videos.

As we were driving back to Hannah's car (parked at the Wesley building), we got there and I decided I should confront the tension. Going out on a limb (looking back, more like a whole tree), I told Hannah I liked her and would like to go on an actual date. She agreed.

We both felt weird just ending on that and agreeing we liked each other and Hannah invited me to hangout on the roof of the Wesley building (1. this is not as unusual as it sounds as it's a campus ministry and 2. I had never gone up there and have a fear of heights) so I confidently said yes!

We sat up there, watching cars go by, stars shine, rain clouds pass over us, and just talking. In a break from my usual jokes, I really felt seen and felt like I had met someone like me. "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." (Genesis 2:23)

We did end up leaving eventually, as the Sun began to rise we agreed we should both go home. The picture I took below was from 6:33am as I got home, super tired, and super thankful and excited.

Our first official date was on September 5th, 2022. I had woken up 2 hours early (or so) to shower, have nice clothes ready (and on), vacuum my car, take it through a car wash, and go by a store to get a flower for Hannah! I was supposed to pick her up at 8:45am to take her and I to a little coffee shop downtown, Walker's Pub (it was a coffee shop in the day)- and I got to her house 5 minutes early! Which if you know me, this is big.

Our first date went... interestingly! We started out by getting coffee then walked around North Campus for a bit, chatting it up and asking first date questions (as if we had not done them already) then made our way back to Walker's to sit and chat since it had started to rain.

We had planned to chat for a bit then head to Our Daily Bread (ODB) where I had been previously serving regularly, as we didn't have work I wanted to use the day off well! While we were chatting, Hannah invited a few of her friends to come stop by and after being put on the spot by some of them about intentions, theology, and life story- I ended up heading to ODB a little early... without Hannah! Our first date had not gone all that well.



A few days later (September 10th, 2022), on official date number two, I would ask Hannah to be my girlfriend! After all, not all things go exactly to plan (such as a first date) but I really liked this girl, and she really liked me. And our friends, despite some initial quizzing, thought it to be good. And it was and is very good.



(below you can see a picture of 'litle' us a few days into dating at Hannah's birthday dinner!)

While it may seem like that was literally everything, many details were left out and stories skipped. Stories of meeting each other parents, many adventurous and many unadventurous dates, and stories of both joy and of comforting.

I, and we, thank God for intertwining our lives through a common love for Him and each other in a love story that will continue to be written forever. We thank God for the faithfulness He has shown and continues to in bringing us together and drawing us deeper in love with one another, with Him, and with all those around us.

And we thank you, for being here. In whatever role you have, you are a part of our story and we thank you for that. Here's to many, many more stories. And to second dates.