Heather’s Version:
So it was towards the end of my freshman year at UMHB and I was sitting in my dorm one afternoon with Chelsea, my roommate at the time and we were wasting time on facebook. It was also the very first day of Facebook Chat. I had no idea what it was, but all of a sudden I saw a thing pop up in the bottom right hand corner of facebook. It said, Clayton Aker. I opened it and all it said was, “hello.” Well I had NO IDEA who this Clayton Aker kid was…so I clicked his name real quick and looked at his profile. At the time his profile pic did not show his face. I read his information and to my surprise he sounded like a great God loving/following guy. I wanted to know more. So I simply wrote back with, “hi”. He then went on to say I don’t think we have met, but I saw your name online and wanted to say hi. I saw we had two mutual friends. One of them being a girl me and Chelsea had begun to know really well. So we chatted on facebook for a while. The more we talked, the more I wanted to know more about him. He told me he was a youth pastor at a church in Florence and I found that so very interesting given his age and that he was only a freshman in college at the time. (He was also not at UMHB-He was at Temple College) we then exchanged numbers and wanted to talk more. So, with the push and shove from my roomie, she told me to text him. I did. He didn’t think I would, but was so glad I did. From that point on, we did not stop talking. I remember thinking to myself. This guy is too good to be true. I also remember telling myself… I am going to be my completely self. Be open. Be honest. Surprisingly, it was so easy with Clayton. We talked about everything. One night on facebook chat, we talked about our testimonies. I told him about my recent struggle and pain with the church. He opened about his life as well. We were both inspired by each other. Well, my days at UMHB were coming to close and I still had not met this too good to be true guy yet. Chelsea told me I should invite him to starbucks with us because we were meeting one of our friends at the time who worked there. I couldn’t do it, so she text him on my phone for me. I am too chicken. He said yes and we all met. To this day, I still remember how nervous I was to meet him. I was so nervous that meeting in person would ruin the too perfect online thing we had going haha. However, to my surprise again, we talked for 3 hours outside in the sun…leaving me with the worst farmers tan ever, but so worth it. I remember seeing in person for the very first time, and I just couldn’t help but smile. He was too cute!! He had a bright yellow shirt, gorgeous long surfer like blonde hair and blue/grey eyes. Ahhh, I just wanted to melt…and freeze time. I had to go though and babysit. That didn’t stop us from talking. We just had to see each other one more time before I left. We hung out at the park the day I left for home. We knew that day, we couldn’t wait all summer to see each other again. So we decided to see each other and visit throughout the summer. We started dating May 7. We spent 1 year and 10 months together. It was wonderful. Clayton at the end of the summer decided to transfer to UMHB so we got to go to school together. We also served at Temple Bible Church together as High school youth interns. That was an awesome experience to share together. We learned and grew a lot. We were the best of friends and I adored him. We fell in love and as we got closer and started getting more serious, that’s when the trouble started. We were each other’s everything and God slowly started becoming less and less apart of the picture. We started arguing a lot, there was pressure to be certain things for each other, and through a couple months of trial breaks, we had to break up. It was one of the hardest things we both ever had to go through. However, we learned a lot, grew a lot, and we both knew it had to happen. There was no way we were going to learn what God had in store for us if we did not think it was completely over for us. We both ended up dating other people. We learned a lot through those relationships as well, but they obviously did not work out. One day last fall, around October, Clayton texted me and asked if we could talk. We met at the park we loved to go to. He shared with me how God has led him through certain things and just shared his life with me and what he had learned. He thought I was still seeing someone, but I wasn’t. We both ended up sharing what God had done in those 7 months of us being separated. We found ourselves talking a lot about God and all these other things. We wanted to keep talking and soon enough, we knew feelings were still there and wanted to try it again. We sought counsel on it and were encouraged to try again. This time, it was even better than before. In some ways, it was like we had never been apart. In other ways…we both knew each other had changed…for the better. And that is our very long and wonderful story. JAs Clayton says, “it all started with Hello.”
Clayton’s Version:
Wow! She can say it all. I don’t know what else to say, but I will try my best to say it in my way. It was a day in April, a day like any other day. I was sitting in my office and I noticed there was a new little box on facebook. Like my momma always says, “Curiosity kills the cat” so I clicked on this box, and saw a name that didn’t look familiar. The person’s name was Heather Maulsby. I decided to take a leap of faith with a sweet pick up line I find online and it was… “Hello.” To my surprise, “Hi” popped up back. A pleasant conversation followed with this girl named Heather. I left her saying she is free to text me if she chooses to, gave her my number, and logged off. It wasn’t till a few days later that she text me and our conversations have since then did not stop. Through random faces via text, awkward third wheel dates, attempts to be killed by killer wasps, a bond was created. Heather left for the summer but our conversations never stopped. In May we decided to take the first plunge…we started dating. It was tough dating 2 ½ hours apart, but we visited each other about every other week. After the summer we both were attending UMHB and interned together at Temple Bible Church. It was awesome to work together with Heather in youth ministry, seeing as I wanted to be a youth pastor. Being able to serve side Heather and seeing her heart for God was what made me fall in love with her. As any couples do, we started focusing more on each other than on God, which lead to breaks, heartaches, and strain on the relationship. After all the breaks, we decided to break it off for the betterment of us. Within those 7 months apart, we both saw other people, and both grew in who God wanted us to be. In October, I text Heather and asked if she would talk with me. All I wanted to do was share my heart with Heather and how I was growing because that is all she ever wanted from me. Since that time, I had no idea what she would say, but once again, she said yes and our conversation has not stopped, us growing together has not stopped since that day. As we grew with each other, we both knew we were ready to take that next step. We took the next plunge and we are now getting married. We are so very excited to have you all be a part of this new journey. We love you and are so grateful for your support and encouragement.
