Hers: I met a funny boy at a RYLA conference in 2016. I was a senior in high school, awaiting my acceptance letter from CNU, and remembered how impacted I was by my interaction with this boy. I had a lot of things on my horizon, as I was about to head to college, so I took it as an encouragement that there were boys like that out there. After all, he was dating someone so that got rid of any uncertainty in my head. Fast forward to my freshman year of college at CNU - Braeden and I met up. He was interested in coming and I was Miss CNU so I showed him around, showcased my school, and caught up with my friend. I was dating someone this time ;) I made a point to see Braeden with each visit he made to CNU and was sad to hear that he had chosen to go to a school in Ohio. "Oh well" I said, that made things pretty clear in my head. B and I kept in touch over social media and I was excited to see that he got involved in the same campus ministry I was apart of at CNU. I was surprised that despite being 7 hours away, Braeden stayed in contact with me. Now a sophomore and single, Braeden and I regularly caught up on Instagram because despite me giving him my phone number... His: ...I lost it. When my old phone went kaput, most of my contacts were preserved except Adelyn's. It was a crushing blow for a man who knew that Adelyn Noble was out of his league, and, though I was increasingly interested in her, I figured it was over for me. However, Spring semester of freshman year brought me to absolutely love Needtobreathe. While at PCB with Cru, I saw Adelyn masterfully cover "Drive All Night," which prompted me to reach out in appreciation. Much to my delight, she responded and remembered me! I tried everything I could from then on to keep our conversations going over Instagram DMs. I formed a plan to utilize her crafting talents (through @akncrafts) to design a wooden bowtie for me, a transaction which got me her phone number back and required a lot of coordination. I figured

that I could offer to pick up the bowtie from Adelyn over the summer as she did research at CNU, which would give another opportunity to talk in-person. The finished tie was beautiful, and my plan was working perfectly--Adelyn and I talked frequently to get everything looking right, and I was ready to ask her to meet her in Newport News to pick it up. However, Adelyn (unaware that the bowtie was really a scheme to talk to her), offered to bring the finished product by my house (which is actually an hour out of the way) on her way back to Blacksburg. This gave us an hour to talk at my house, but it made me have to be creative to get a whole day to be together. One night a few weeks later, after looking at my pale arms, I called Adelyn and asked if I could take her up on her offer to go to the beach. She excitedly agreed and we planned to get together on July 27th. She arranged an action-packed day, including borrowing stand-up paddle boards from Peninsula Community Chapel, going to Buckroe Beach, eating Bob-Bob's and Pelican's Snoballs, and watching the sunset from the beach of Lion's Gate Bridge. The day was full of fun, intentional conversations, and getting to know each other more. As we went back to college, we kept in contact frequently. I was floored by how Adelyn pushed me towards loving and knowing Jesus more, challenging me to grow in Him and serving as an example of a strong, faithful woman. We began to write letters to each other, which fed our old souls. Finally, I asked Adelyn over the phone at 1:30 A.M. on September 19th, "You know how you always call me B? Well, you know what bees make? [Honey.] Adelyn, this B would really like to make you his Honey; will you be my girlfriend?" She said yes, and after 15 months of long-distance, an internship at PCC, a pandemic, and 1.5 years of college, I asked Adelyn to marry me on December 19th at the VT Inn, where our story began. We look forward to a continuing story of pursuing Jesus and writing lots of letters.