close friends." I deflated. Her next words almost hurt me more than her first. "I understand if you need time to be away from me." I swallowed my pride and told her. "I would rather keep you as a friend and still be able to keep you in my life, than to lose you forever." I walked her to her car and with a heavy but resigned heart, I accepted the she just wanted friendship. Perhaps God would change her mind, if this truly was what he had for me. I walked in and told my family that I had asked her and her response.

The next day I was meeting with Paul Stauffer for our weekly discipleship training, and I had just finished telling him the story of the night before when the phone rang and Katie said that she had been hasty the day before and needed some more time to think about it. I was elated. Two weeks had past, and I was starting to lose hope. And then she told me that she was willing to spend more time with me to see if she was willing to spend time with me as my girlfriend. To this

day I am not entirely sure what that meant. We were dating but we weren't calling it dating. Everyone around us noticed that we were closer then we had been before. I figured that I would just enjoy what it was that we had at the moment.

On December 6th, Katie asked me to join her at the Library while she studied. I agreed; I had some work to do for my Leadership In Training course that I was taking with our Church Elders. She finished her studying before I finished my work, and I mentioned that I left my laptop computer at my office in Martinsburg, and that I would need it for Sunday. She said I'll go out to work with you. I told her that I really did not need to get it but it would be helpful for the service on Sunday. I had no idea that she was going to suggest that we start dating officially, but I was very glad that she did.