Jenna: We met on the Christian dating app Upward. When I saw his profile I thought he was really cute and his interests were similar to mine, but I was mostly impressed with the information he chose to include on his profile. He described the gospel and his love for God’s Word and he was very straightforward about his faith in Jesus Christ. I loved talking to him right away, and was really excited to share about him with some of the elder's wives at prayer meetings and ask for prayer about this man I had just met! During our first few conversations, he told me he was looking for a Godly marriage, and if I wasn’t interested in that he didn’t want to waste my time. He asked me about important Biblical doctrine and challenged my understanding of the Word. It didn’t take long for him to ask to have a phone call and shortly after we started FaceTiming. Our first phone call lasted a few hours even though I was sick at the time and so tired, it felt like only a few minutes had passed. He was really easy to talk to. We also discovered that he grew up 10 minutes away from Koronis Bible Camp, a camp I love to serve at during the summer. He wondered if we had ever unknowingly crossed paths at the grocery store or something while we were both in the area. We’ll never know! Haha. I called Megan after a few of our phone calls and told her I was going to marry Nathan. After a lot of phone calls and FaceTime, he asked if we could meet in person. Our first time meeting he stayed a weekend with my family. He met with my small group leaders, some friends, we went to church with my family and shared meals with my family and friends. I was nervous the whole time, and I don’t usually get nervous about such things, but I had a lot of fun with him. He thought I was really funny and I thought it was funny that he kept laughing at all of my nonsense. Nathan was direct and clear about expectations and discussing what he wanted for our future and I appreciated how easy it was to talk about all of the important things with him. I wanted all of the same things and we had already talked about marriage and our future, so I wasn’t surprised when he asked to take me to the jewelry store to see what I liked and get my ring size the same weekend I met his family. He made all of those things easy and comfortable, and I’m still so thankful for his peaceful and easygoing demeanor. The following few weekends were extremely trialed as his family and mine endured some hardships. I was so encouraged by his faithfulness in prayer and communication of still wanting to pursue marriage. After another few weeks, he came to visit for a weekend and asked me to be his wife at my favorite spot in Cedar Falls. We originally planned to get married in May, but after realizing there was no need to wait we decided to move our wedding to six weeks from our official engagement.
Nathan: We met on Upward. I was the first to swipe yes on her. When I saw her profile I thought she was beautiful and she had the best things come up, she was “pro-god, pro-guns, pro-life.” and said she liked the idea of natural home births. I thought it was funny that she said if you do not know how to hold a conversation please do not waste my time. I also really liked what she had to say about the Bible and what she believed in, being that was the main focus of what I was looking for. We hit it off right away texting a lot. But that didn’t last long, we exchanged numbers and I asked to talk on the phone. I disrupted her sleep and her 9:00 bedtime, she was also really sick. I think our first phone conversation lasted over three hours. I felt bad because the time was passed midnight and she was so sick but I didn’t want to stop talking to her. We kept talking, like every night and started to FaceTime and learn more about each other. I already started to know that she was the person I wanted to be with. I liked our conversations and knew she was a Godly woman. We hadn’t even met in person and I was so attracted to her. We talked on the phone for two months then we met in person the weekend before Christmas. I not only met her for the first time but I met her whole family. I thought I would be more nervous but everything went well. I ended up meeting Ben and Malynda (Jenna’s small group leaders) and other people she considered important to her and I thought it all went well, it was really good to meet everyone and see the love they all have for her. I knew Jenna was special and would be an amazing wife, all those people love her so much and kept telling me how wonderful she is and how much they cherish her. She’s a good one. After that first weekend meeting we continued to talk and missed each other a lot. It was two weeks after the first time meeting we decided I would visit again. After that it was hard to be away and we really started talking about our future. From there on we decided we wanted to be with each other and started talking more about marriage and what that looks like for us. We both wanted a Godly marriage and to grow in Christ together. We knew we didn’t want to wait and have a long engagement and we wanted to spend our lives together. I planned the perfect weekend to propose. I wanted to take her to her favorite hiking spot in Cedar Falls. Then her crazy cat Bo decided on Friday she was going to attack Jenna. I didn’t know if I should wait another weekend but I just wanted to propose then. I was upset that the cat scratched her and bit her up again, so I offered to “take care of the cat” that weekend….and I did the next morning. Then right after we went for a walk at Hartman and I asked her to marry me, and she said no because I killed her cat and I was crushed for a second. I knew she was kidding, and she did say yes. After that, I’ve just been counting down the days until I get to spend the rest of my life with her.
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