Hayley and Nathan were both members of band while attending Dodge City High School in Dodge City, Kansas. Hayley was a sophomore and Nathan was a freshman when they met.
Initially, though, Hayley was unimpressed by Nathan and his dare-devil antics. The summer at band camp before school started, Nathan broke his shoulder blade and collarbone jumping on the hood of a moving vehicle. “I thought he was the dumb freshman who jumped on a car and broke his shoulder!” Hayley explains. But she admits “I always thought he was funny and kind of cute, and as we got to know each other more I saw how sweet he was and just an all-around nice guy.”
They maintained the same group of friends and eventually, Hayley got his phone number from a friend, they started texting and a week later he asked Hayley out on their first date.
After dating for a while, Hayley and Nathan broke things off. Hayley then graduated high school and moved to Borger in 2011 to attend college at Frank Phillips. In 2013, Nathan also moved to Borger to get more involved with the foreign missions program at Fellowship Baptist in Borger. “At the time, everyone thought he was moving here for me, but I wasn’t the reason he moved, just a bonus,” Hayley jokes. “When he moved here we had no intentions of dating again, but one thing led to another and we decided we really were perfect for each other.”
“It was just obvious that it wasn't going to work with anyone else,” Nathan says. “I could never picture myself marrying anyone else but him,” Hayley adds.
Nathan proposed at the Sunday service at their church the weekend of Hayley’s 21st birthday. Hayley assumed her family had come to town for her birthday, but Nathan had planned the whole weekend and made sure they would be there when he proposed.
Hayley says so far the most memorable part of their relationship is “The birth of our daughter, Julia. Becoming parents together has been the greatest, most challenging, and the most rewarding thing we've ever done.”
Looking to the future, Hayley says “We don't know where we will be in 5 years, but we most likely won't still be in Borger. We know that God is leading us to move somewhere, we just don't know when and where yet. We are most looking forward to watching our daughter grow up and who she becomes.”