Natasha – In October, my brothers and I went to Orlando for a GYC site visit. On the way home, we routed our flights through Nashville, where our mother met us so that we could see David and Caroline’s (Paul’s sister) brand new little one, Sarah Elizabeth.

The interim months had been difficult ones for me, enjoying getting to know him better and yet cautious and fearful at times, not sure how much weight to place on his interest in our friendship. Having secured my parents consent, Paul took me down to the dock by their pond and, surrounded by the crisp autumn weather gave me a bouquet of zinnias and had a conversation with me.He revealed the long standing nature of his interest, telling me how many years this had been in his heart. He expressed his appreciation for my character, and finally gave me a card he had hand-made, where he had expressed all of the above in writing.

All of it was nearly incomprehensible to me as he had given me no clue of his long standing interest. My respect for his restraint and strength of character began to grow by leaps and bounds. We prayed together afterwards, and in the months that followed that conversation I was able to relax much more and feel safer getting to know him better as a friend without stressing about it. 🙂