Travis:

It's funny... all I wanted to do was discuss ideas on courtship to help with a small-group study I was planning. Little did I know, God was about to set me up.

It all started back in December of 2000, when I went to Josh Harris' web site and found out he had a message board. I was thrilled, because I was about to start discussing courtship with my church's high school small group (that I was co-leading at the time). I started posting, but primarily stuck to fringe topics (such as "Should A Wife Leave Her Abusive Husband?") under the handle "TooRisky2Tell". I'm glad I used that name, because my views (mixed with my inability to communicate them effectively) led many to become angry with me - including a certain "Martie" (perhaps she was going by "Audrey" at the time - I don't remember). Soon after, Josh changed boards and I decided to change my ID as well - but I didn't tell anyone. (Praise God for giving me a clean slate!)

I was able to communicate a little better on the "new" board (primarily by sticking to the "Misc." section), and as such, heard little from Martie. One time that I remember speaking with her on that board was in regards to a post I made about my pastor's daughter (who I was co-leading that small group with)... who I had held an interest in for two years. I remember this because her name is Audrey, and at the time, Martie was posting as "Audrey". I was struck with how much she seemed like the (at that time) object of my affections. She assured me she was not, though, and that was good enough for me.

Martie:

The first time I ever got involved with a message board was when I was getting excited about going to New Attitude (NA) in 2000.  There was a message board set up there for people to discuss the conference and their excitement.  Josh Harris, the guy who puts on the conference, also had another message board set up for people who wanted to talk about his books and Christian issues, not that I was really into all that at the time. 

After we all came back from NA00, there was no reason to really keep the board up.  So I journeyed over to the Josh Harris Message Board (JHMB) to join in all the fun over there.  The fun lasted about four months and then the place shut down.  A handful of us went nuts trying to stay together and we all sort of formed a tight knit group of adopted brothers and sisters and friends.  We had several meeting places where we would all still converse and it was at one of these message boards where the whole thing started.

Travis:

When Josh closed his board a few fringe boards sprung up to delay the separation anxiety we all feared. The two Harris-centered boards were New Ministry and 2KNT (now closed). Right after the breakup/shakedown, I headed on over to New Ministry and started talking. I also posted a drawing of Natalie Portman that I had recently done.

If only I knew then what was about to happen...

Travis, who is quite the little artist, happened to post a picture of Ms. Natalie Portman at Cinnamon’s board, New Ministry (where you can still read all the "fun" starting at message #167).  That sparked a little debate about him having a crush on Natalie Portman and to prove that he didn’t have a crush on her, he offered to draw my picture.  There was a lot of teasing about the picture and somehow talk of a wedding was thrown in for laughs and the next thing you knew, Travis and I were talking a lot on AIM.  Somehow that lead to me calling him at work one day.  Somehow that lead to him calling me for three hours on June 1st, 2001.

Travis:

Apparently the drawing was well received - some of the young ladies even went so far as to compliment me on it. My first reply, though, was from MartieDarling: "Draw me, draw me! ;) (Not good for my humility)...make me a star!"
Later comments were as follows:

MartieDarling: "Did you read that she played a girl named "Marty" in Beautiful Girls? Ha! You are destined to draw me!"
MartieDarling: "Martie, a beautiful girl (lol)"
SongOfJoy1982: "But, Travis, you sound awfully 'star struck'. And you've spent time drawing a picture of her...could it be that you do have just a little crush on her? Oh, never mind...I don't know why in the world I might think that. Of course, if you do one of Martie we'll all be assured that my suspicions are totally unfounded."
Travis_926: "Or maybe it'll mean I have crushes on both.  "
MartieDarling: "Right, right Cinnamon...what I'm REALLY trying to do is to get Travis ALL to myself. I thought that first I'd discredit his little crush on Natalie, and then I'd waltz in and steal his affections...umm...no..."
MartieDarling: "Right, so be careful while you are drawing my picture that you don't fall in love with me, okay? I know, I know, it will be VERY difficult for you, but I have faith that you can do it, alright?  "
Travis_926: "What, you have a problem with younger guys? Just teasing...  "
MartieDarling: "Actually, no...everyone I've ever liked has been a couple years younger than me...and I won't be 25 until Monday, so...hey, maybe we could get married or something! I mean, it is okay that I ask you, right?  Oh, and can you cook and clean, since I have the BIG job? Thanks. Send me your response and I'll have my attorney look over the pre-nup. And let me e-mail my mom. She'll be sooo happy that I finally found some guy and asked him out..."
Travis_926: "And what exactly would that BIG job be again? Yes, I can cook and clean... for the right person.  "
MartieDarling: "Yeah, it's a BIG job...I work as a paralegal in a law firm, so , aww, ya know, I'm making the BIG bucks and wearing the pants in the family...(ha ha, so not true...and I hate pants!) Yeah, I can cook and clean for the right person too...just haven't met him yet..."
MartieDarling: "But you never know...With our mutual love for comics, we might just make it after all!  "
Travis_926: "...Darling, you're awesome.  "
SongOfJoy1982: "Y'all just get worse and worse...almost hard to tell where the joking stops and the real picture begins! Travis, how 'bout a picture of a guy?"
MartieDarling: "Yeah, my heads starting to hurt...I mean, am I married? What's going on? Where's my mommy? Travis, darling, would I be any less wonderful if I didn't like comics? Am I just too good to be true?  ps. can I call my mom and tell her now?"
Travis_926: "With the way this topic's going, you suggest I draw a GUY???"
SongOfJoy1982: "Uh...well, not exactly what I meant."
OpalRose2002: "Martie Darling!! Please don't do this!!! You think it's bad to have more then 5 husbands, what bout him having over *counts* at least 6 "loves"??? And those are JUST the ones he's told me about!!! I'm telling you , stop it now!! You won't even last for a day, I mean, LOOK at his fridge!!!!!
Ok, so you both like comics, I like personality stuff, does that mean I should marry Dr. Dobson, I DON'T THINK SO!!! Take it from me, you guys are both oldest, you wouldn't get along!!!! You'd tear each other apart so that by the end of the day you'd be too frazzled to have time to sign up for a divorce!!! Besides, your personalities just wouldn't work! I mean when was the last time you heard of an INFJ and ESTJ getting along??? Never(you've never heard of personalitites)!! Exactly, my point!!!! The NF and SJ personalities would just clash!! I mean they'd clash as much as a baby personality would with an oldest(if you haven't read a certain birth-order book you wouldn't get that )!
Take it from his sister Martie... you don't want him! not even for a day!!!!
lol!! that was fun!!! :-D Very fun!!  but *sigh* I have to go. 
oh, and if you guys still haven't figured it out... that was a joke, ok?? Nothing in that is true... including the "6 loves of Trav" ('cause if I said it was true I'd be dead )
I actually think you'd make a cute couple.  Trav, I'm begging you, PLEASE don't kill me, I was just kidding!!!!  (well you would make a cute couple but... )
I'll leave before I dig myself into a deeper hole. "
MerrySunshineer: "I disagree! Baby princesses/clowns go WELL with first borns! They balance each other remarkably well. . . the one has tendencies to be irresponsible, but also gay, outgoing, etc. Whereas the latter is responsible, dutiful, etc. They balance each other. The responsible keeps the irresponsible motivated. The fun, outgoing one helps the overly-responsible to lighten up and not be so dutiful. Remember. . . opposites attract.  "
MartieDarling: "You can't stop TRUE LOVE Charity! BTW, I'm blushing...no more comments about me and Travie-Trav being a "cute couple", okay? I'm just in this for the publicity of a drawing, alright?"
Travis_926: "Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you;
You sure are a cutie,
I just need to draw you!"
MartieDarling: "Watch it, mister...I'm an "older" woman...and we aren't married yet, so don't try to get fresh with me or I'll smack ya!"

...anyway, you get the picture. Speaking of pictures, I still hadn't gotten around to drawing Martie. In the meantime, though, I had begun talking to her on the phone... and AIM... a lot.

Maybe it was indigestion, maybe it was God prodding me on. Either way, I couldn't ignore what was developing between myself and Martie. The flirting continued. We'd put an end to it. It would slowly come back. We thought we were joking - at least, I had convinced myself that we were. The truth was, I was becoming more and more attracted to her: her character, her personality, her spirit. (Remember, I'd only seen two pictures of her at this point.)

Our topic of conversation for the previous few days had been about arranging a get-together for a few of our internet friends sometime during the summer. As we talked to each other more, it turned out that Travis and I only really wanted to arrange a get-together in order to meet each other.  We made plans to meet our friends on August 10, 2001, at Hershey Park, but it turned out that I was going to be at a conference in Lynchburg, VA on July 1st.

Travis:

On June 2, 2001, we had a phone conversation that included discussing the possibilities of a courtship between us. (Don't listen to Martie - I know it was a Saturday, and June 1st was Friday.) We both agreed to think it over, and on Monday I called her back: we had both (independently) decided it wasn't the right time to begin a courtship.

But anyway, when I did draw her... well... maybe it was staring at her picture for four straight hours... maybe it was my willful dedication to trying to serve her in this way... maybe it was something I ate. All I know is that my feelings toward Martie kicked into overdrive that evening I drew her: June 10th.

Like locusts, Martie and I single-handedly stripped 2KNT of what we wanted and moved on to greener pastures.

We began talking about meeting in person... which led to planning a trip to Hershey Park in August. It was around this time that I started feeling an ache... a longing to be able to spend time with Martie in person. It wasn't enough to talk on the phone. I wanted to see her smile, not hear it. I wanted her to be able to tell by my expressions when I was just trying to be a cornball (all the times she thought I was serious!). I just... wanted to be with her.

Along comes Celebration 2001. (God bless PDI!) Martie was going to Lynchburg for this conference during the pre-July 4th weekend, and it was the perfect opportunity for us to spend an afternoon together. (Now remember, we both knew we each had a "more-than-friends" interest in the other.)

I had never been more nervous - or excited - in my entire life.

Martie:

Seeing as Lynchburg was about half way in between my house and Travis’ house and that we wanted to meet each other so much, we met for lunch that day in Lynchburg.  Travis brought along his mother and little sister.  I brought along my best friend and her fiancé.  I was so nervous the whole time we were sitting there for lunch.  I was glad to wave good-bye to every one as Travis and I drove off to try to locate a movie theater.  We had a fun time, getting a little lost and figuring it all out.  It helped to break the ice.

But six hours was sadly not enough time together.  I remember how sad I was to say goodbye.  I wanted more time to spend with him.

Travis:

I had my mom and little sister with me – Martie had "TimAndLex". I got to the restaurant early... she thought it was in the mall, and they got there about 45 minutes late. I was in the lobby sweating bullets, trying not to think, "She stood me up!" I almost wept for joy when I saw her walking up.

We all sat down, and talked while the other four ate – Martie and I were too nervous for eating. Seemed she was more nervous than me, though: Alexis would be telling a cute story, and all Martie could say was "Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!!!" - while her face got more and more red. (I, of course, found this adorable.) The rest of the afternoon was great, despite the fact I seemed to keep getting lost when we drove anywhere (it was all an act, I assure you). We said our goodbyes, hugged, and I drove off with my ladies. (Don't look at me like that, you know I mean my mom & sis!)

It only took me a week to realize the treasure I had stumbled across, and on July 10, 2001, I "officially" asked Martie to court. She accepted. I forgot to breathe. She reminded me to breathe.

Martie:

A few days after meeting in Lynchburg, a random phone call about "Would I still Like Travis if he had $5 and Lived out of his Car" turned into a five hour telephone conversation, during which time he asked me to court him and I said a joyful “yes.”  I don’t think that my heart has ever beaten so fast in my life.

Finally, a month later, August 10th came around.  We were able to celebrate our one-month anniversary together in person.  We got to spend time with our friends, as we originally planned.  We had a wonderful weekend and Divine Providence even kept me in Pennsylvania longer than expected.  Now we are counting our way down to another visit in early September and again in October.

Travis:

You want to know my four least favorite words? Long. Distance. Phone. Bill.

Don't let anyone tell you the main "hard thing" about a long-distance relationship is the distance. That one is tied with the fact that you can't spend six hours a day on the phone with each other, unless you have Bill Gates' salary. Of course, the closeness issue is a strong one, and every day we're apart, my aforementioned ache grows.

I know God's got a purpose for all of this - I just tend to want to ignore that so I can whine and complain. God knows my weaknesses, and he likes to give good gifts to his children, so I think that's why he made the weather so bad during Martie's trip up here (for our 1-month courtship anniversary and trip to Hershey)! See, due to bad weather, her flights back to Knoxville kept getting delayed to the point of cancellation! We made three trips to the airport before she stepped onto a plane. Of course, I was more than happy to carry her bags all that time.

As I write this, it's just under 8 days until we can see each other face-to-face again. It's hard to believe it's been four months since the "drawing incident" - it seems like ages ago. We haven't even finished the first chapter of our story, though: this thing's just beginning.

Martie:

It’s funny how things can just fall into your lap out of the clear blue sky.  I never thought that talking to some guy in Pennsylvania on Instant Messenger (AIM) could lead to anything of significance.  In fact, I believed that "internet relationships" weren’t real, but here we are today, real as can be.

I’ve never been more amazed by God’s grace in the form of His gift to me…one Travis Seitler.

And this is just the beginning.