So lets see...let me tell you about the guy I'm going to marry. He was born in Victoria, British Colombia, Canada on January 14th, 1982. For the first few weeks of his life he was referred to as "The Thing" until it was decided that he would go by something more specific: Clayton Charles Merkley. His father (Al) is from Edmonton, Alberta and his mother (Jeri) is from a small town outside of Billings, Montana.
He grew up in Canada, planting there, somewhere between the age of 2-5, the dream of joining the military. At ten they moved to Orem, UT, buying a house just down the street from Peter. Peter could tell you much more about those subsequent years than I could. In 8th grade he decided that his post-high school destination was West Point, NY. He was accepted and attended there for 2 years before taking leave to serve a mission in Ukraine.
When Clayton and I talk mission stories, you would think that we had served in the same mission. Cultures, languages, and foods were almost identical. Okay, so languages not so much. He speaks Russian, I speak Lithuanian. No relation, except for the word for "pancake". Not so useful.
After his mission he eventually got back to West Point, where he graduated in 2007. (He credits that day as being one of the all time greatest days of his life to date.) To celebrate that event in June of 2007, his family held a BBQ in their backyard. That required that he come over to Peter's to borrow chairs. :) That's how we met for the very first time. Peter decided to invite him over for Thai food after that, and our hope was that Anna and Clayton would "hit it off". That didn't work out so much, but it did open the door enough for Anna, Clayton and I to become pretty good friends before I took off. We went hiking together, chummed around at Singles Ward, mixed drinks, ate food, the usual. There are lots of juicy details I could share here, but we'll save those for the wedding...keep you in suspense for a little bit.
Clayton finally stalked me down in October of 2007. He got my email address from Peter and wrote me for the first time on November 14th, 2007. I wrote back that week, and we then proceeded to write to each other almost every week for the rest of the mission. What an interesting way to get to know the guy your going to marry! Clayton played what I feel was a key role in my mission...he represented a source of hope as he related directly with the complications of my mission. He was funny, witty, insightful, honest, kind, flirtatious, the works. Ulitmately, I discovered over time that he was a source of joy to me. And lucky for us, we have the whole thing documented! Maybe you'll get to read it someday.
Since being back from the mission, we talked about every other day on the phone until he came home on February 15th. I had myself all geared up to find him repulsive or to find him to be a complete stranger to me. What I didn't have myself geared up for was the option that he really was exactly what I believed him to be....my joy! Little suspicions and promptings that I had been gathering up for the last year and a half began to be validated one by one. Again...more juicy details will be revealed later. :)
Now he's gone again, but we've still been so blessed to be able to communicate quite freely. Oh yeah, you want to know where he went? Back to Baghdad. He's been in Baghad for a year now. It's been a life changing experience for him, and he will be so happy when it's over. I can talk to him sometimes twice a day on the phone, and daily through chat and email.
He's going to be back in the States in the beginning of June, just in time for the ultimate celebration to be held on the evening of June 12th in Peter's backyard... in preparation for our marriage, which will happen the following day (June 13th) at the Draper Temple. The final celebration will be on June 27th at our house in Raft River. Whew. How fun will this be! Save those dates. You're going to formally invited to them eventually....come to one of 'em, all of 'em, none of 'em, you choose.
Oh my, this is long. I hope it does the trick. :) Clayton and I will be around Utah/Idaho for the couple of weeks we have before heading to Germany in July, where we plan to be for a few years probably. So plan to have a place to stay in the heart of Europe when you come...we're close to everything there.
Okay...enough of this. Questions?...call me. Ideas?...call me. I would love to hear them.
