In a church full of Virginia residents, Joshua approached Bess and told her, “We Marylanders should hang out.” She agreed that a group outing would help her meet people in her new town and gave him her number. She only realized later that they were the only two Marylanders.

Was it a date? Bess didn’t think so. She figured Joshua probably had a girlfriend, and when it was clear that he didn’t, she figured Joshua probably took lots of girls on dates. No big deal. As they sat down to dinner in Bethesda, Bess noticed his forearms and a prominent vein. Her doctor instincts kicked in and she reached out to inspect him, commenting on how easy it must be to draw blood. Joshua’s only reaction to her investigative touch was, “Man, I think she likes me! This is going well!” Bess til this day still concludes, “No, you just have really big veins.”

Despite having crossed signals initially, things were quickly sorted out and they began dating officially. Over time, Bess found that she liked how thoughtful and caring Joshua was. Joshua liked Bess’s love for family and easy confidence. It wasn’t long before Joshua approached Bess’ parents for their blessing and things were sorted out for good.