About 15 years ago when the Harts lived in Athens, Ga. they knew the Kirkpatrick family. At this time Emily was six and Nathan was eleven.
Many years later, the two were reconnected through Facebook when Emily friended Nathan, who she only really new by name and reputation. Once they were friends on Facebook they exchanged brief messages over the next year.
In the fall of 2008, Nathan was coaching men’s basketball at Covenant College and they happened to play Samford University that year. Coincidentally, that is where Emily was enrolled as a sophomore. Nathan reached out to say hey again via Facebook and asked if she would like to catch up in Birmingham at the basketball game. Emily thought that would be fun but as they game got closer due to business on both sides, she forgot about the game and consequently didn’t come. Nathan remembered inviting Emily to the game and before the game looked for her in the stands in case she did show. Emily did not show, however, so Nathan coached the game as usual.
Over the next year and a half Emily’s pictures would randomly pop up on Nathan’s Facebook news feed, and Nathan would notice how beautiful she was and how much she loved life. He also knew of the Hart family and presumed Emily was a godly girl worth meeting.
So, in March of 2010 Nathan attended his dad’s men’s ministry conference in Atlanta, “The Gospel Man Conference,” where he heard Pastor Bob Flayhart of Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Al. as the keynote speaker. Since Nathan always associated Emily with being in Birmingham, he instantly thought of her being at Samford and wondering what she was up to.
Early the next week, Nathan was on the floor of his bedroom surfing the Internet and checking Facebook when a photo album of Emily and her friends popped up on Nathan’s news feed. Nathan felt specifically compelled by the Lord to write her a wall post out of the blue to say hey.
Nathan and Emily proceeded to share a couple posts back and forth on Facebook concerning their school year and updates on life. After a few posts Nathan decided to write her a private message asking for her number and asking if he could take her to dinner to catch up, if she was free Easter weekend. Emily responded that she would love to get together on Good Friday and it was convenient to come to Athens.
So, on April 2, 2010 Emily met Nathan in Athens for a lunch date that ended up lasting 11 hours. The day included lunch on North Campus, a visit to the newspaper archives of the University of Georgia library, a putting contest at the UGA driving range, a UGA men’s tennis match, dinner at a Mexican restaurant in five points and cheesecake and champagne to finish out the night.
At the end of the night Nathan dropped Emily off at her car and told her that he wanted to definitely see her again soon and wanted to come to Birmingham to see her stomping ground. This visit to Birmingham wouldn’t happen for three more weeks so they spent the duration of that time talking on the phone for hours, averaging two and a half hours per call.
The relationship grew with an initial Birmingham visit, then a surprise visit to Samford, then a wedding weekend in Chattanooga that defined the serious direction of their relationship. Next was a road trip to North Carolina where they expressed their strong love for each other and a commitment to get married. Finally the relationship strengthened with a week of wonderful dialogue with one another’s families regarding their blessing and support for Nathan and Emily’s future engagement and marriage.
