Discover how God graciously brought us to this moment!

Clint and Abigail both came to Gardner-Webb University as freshmen in August of 2016. Abigail remembers first seeing Clint downstairs in the Tucker Student Center after a scholarship banquet held September 29. She was dressed up and standing with a mutual friend, whom Clint shouted at from across the building. Abigail asked who he was, and she responded, “Oh, that’s Clint. I wouldn’t worry about him, he’s really awkward,” but Abigail was curious about him. Clint doesn’t remember any of this, though. Clint remembers first seeing Abigail on the third floor of the Tucker Student Center in a study room where he and another mutual friend were watching How I Met Your Mother. Abigail tried to open the glass door to say hello to the friend, couldn’t figure out the push-pull handle for about 30 seconds. When she finally opened the door, Clint had been watching her the whole time and thinking it was cute, said “Doors are difficult.” Abigail thought he was being rude, but shrugged it off and they all watched the first episode of the series together.

Every year the Gardner-Webb Honors Association puts the freshmen in charge of the club’s homecoming float. Abigail and Clint both showed up to help, but quickly became uncomfortable with how many people were crowded together in a small room. Clint volunteered to go to some grocery stores to find more cardboard boxes, and Abigail seized the opportunity to get out of the crowded room and volunteered to help! She got into the car with an almost complete stranger and the two spent the next several hours driving around town, looking for cardboard, talking, and laughing. They both remember how easy it was to talk to the other person and that there were no pauses the whole time. A few days later, Clint asked Abigail if she’d go to the homecoming dance with him.

Clint held Abigail’s hand every time they sat near each other for the entire month of October, but Abigail finally put her foot down and said he had to take her on a date if he wanted to keep holding her hand. He asked her if she wanted to go to The Red Lobster and a haunted hayride that Saturday, and she agreed to! Clint planned to take her to Red Lobster, not realizing that it had been closed for two years. He improvised and took her to Applebee’s, which eventually became their go-to date spot. Halfway through their meal, Clint realized that Abigail wouldn’t do well with a haunted anything (he was correct), so he took her to the mall to walk around a bit and the two saw a movie instead!

Clint first told Abigail that he loved her before they even went on their first official date. Abigail responded with “you don’t even know me!” but Clint claims he meant that he wanted to love her and display Christ’s love in their relationship. Clint continued to say “I love you” from then on, so it’s difficult to tell when it switched to an explicitly romantic thing. Abigail first told Clint that she loved him the Sunday before finals week in December 2016. They were in a Walmart and Abigail saw a huge tray of Christmas cookies 75% off that she got really excited about, so she looked at Clint and without saying a word he put it in his cart and proceeded to get a gallon of milk. In the checkout line, Abigail was so excited about the milk and cookies and the gesture that she looked at Clint and said, “I think I’m in love with you!”

Abigail had been dropping hints that she wanted Clint to propose since their junior year of college, and her hints eventually evolved into “can we please get engaged before the end of 2019?” Clint kept planning elaborate proposals, but each time Abigail would ruin them by saying “you know what? Tonight would be a great night to propose to me!” Abigail’s inability to wait kept ruining the element of surprise that Clint hoped to achieve, so after three failed attempts and Abigail accidentally finding the ring box on Clint’s dresser twice, he was finally able to pop the question on October 15, 2019. For Clint’s 19th birthday Abigail bought a clear jar from the campus bookstore and color-coded notecards and made a “things to do” jar. Abigail and Clint used the jar for a few months and she eventually forgot about it, but it sat on his desk throughout all of college. One day in October, Abigail was having a horrible day. Everything had gone wrong and she was stressed and exhausted. Clint invited her over to his apartment to cheer her up, sat her down at his desk, and said “here, let’s look through this and see if there’s anything in here we haven’t done yet that we can start planning so you can have something look forward to.” Abigail pulled out a card, opened it up, and saw that Clint had written “get married” on it. She immediately started sobbing from being so overwhelmed, not even about the proposal! She ran out of the room, collected herself, came back in, and said yes!