Will and Natalie first met in 2004 at a TeenPact event. The first
time Natalie remembers Will, he was giving a speech on
“Aggressive Hospitality,” that is, how to go out of one’s way to
make others feel welcome, after which, he didn’t speak to Natalie
all week. Will remembered Natalie as “that girl with the long
hair.” Their relationship continued at another TeenPact event
that summer when Natalie ran for TP vice-president and won
although Will voted for another candidate. They went to Patrick
Henry College that fall and knew each other but still didn’t talk.
Natalie left that spring to intern for TeenPact like Will had done
the spring before. When Natalie came back to Patrick Henry, she
and fellow TeenPact interns Rebekah and Nathanael started
hanging out. Since Will and Nathanael were roommates, Will
naturally came along. After a while, he started to enjoy it too.
Natalie thought of the guys as big brothers and even got them to
scare away unwanted guys once or twice. Pretty soon, Will
began to become very interested in a certain small woman.
Natalie didn’t have a clue, but she enjoyed highly respected Will.
After a while, Natalie started fighting feelings for Will as well.
She tried to ignore it though since she considered Will and
Nathanael and Rebekah as being “like siblings.” In the spring
semester of Will’s junior year, Rebekah and Nathanael began
courting, shattering Natalie’s obliviousness. She didn’t want to
appear to double-date Will, so she started avoiding him. She
didn’t think he would notice. He did. A lot. Nathanael changed
Will’s ringtone to “She Says She Doesn’t Have Time For You.”
Will knew he had to do something and soon. Will didn’t think he
was ready for a serious relationship while he was still in college,
so he had tried to put his feelings for Natalie off. He started
asking his parents and close friends about his readiness for a
serious relationship. He figured that they would give him
cautions and things to work on. Everyone told him to go ahead.
Everyone. It was about the time the Will decided he needed to
start pursuing Natalie that she started avoiding him. One thing
Will knew about Natalie was that she trusted her dad A LOT. If
Will was going to get close to Natalie, he would have to call her
dad first. So he did. He locked himself in his car with his phone,
took deep breaths, and was about to dial when . . . Bang! Bang!
Bang! A security officer was knocking on Will’s window with a
question. Will had to pray up his nerve again before he could
dial Natalie’s home number. Natalie’s dad is a shrewd one, and
he knew Natalie was interested in Will potentially, but she wasn’t
ready for a relationship yet. Natalie’s dad and Will spent several
months getting to know each other and studying the Bible via
e-mail while Natalie’s dad watched carefully to see when Natalie
was ready. By the end of the summer, her dad gave his blessing,
and Will and Natalie officially began courting on August 19,
2007.