It's been a long time since I've done a blog post in this series and I'm hoping to not neglect it as much moving forward. If you're new or need a refresher:
We had graduated high school. I had written all of my close friends letters to tell them how much they meant to me and when I wrote to Ben I told him that being friends with him showed me the standard I would have for the kind of man I wanted to marry one day. Typing that now it seems so over the top but it just made so much sense to communicate that because he was such an incredible guy, I would never waste my time with any one without as solid character as him moving forward.
Sitting together in the back of the van on the way to camp, making sad faces because we were in traffic and were so miserable in the car, haha.

For those of you not familiar with the "Super Summer" camp model.. each grade is a color. Graduating seniors not called into ministry were khaki. Your grade is called your "school" so we were "khaki school". And you had small groups within that. Our youth pastor, Josh (who eventually performed our wedding ceremony) was the "dean" of khaki school, and basically taught all the lessons and was in charge of everything. He had ended up having an emergency at church (I don't remember what it was) that kept him from being at the trainings the few days before camp started, including the time when small groups were selected. When we arrived, Ben and I were in the same small group. I was mutually excited and frustrated. I would love that time with Ben but I also loved being vulnerable and growing in my small group, and I felt like I would be too distracted from what the Lord had for me to learn that week. A few days into camp Josh explained that if he had been there early with the rest of the crew, he would have moved us apart even though the group placements had been prayed over. He said the clearly this was the plan.

Somehow we ended up weaving matching headbands. Of course! :)