Tuesday Coffee Chat: Love is in the Air

I'm joining Leslie at Time Out for Mom for Tuesday Coffee Chat. This week's prompt: Love. Amore. What is it? Does it happen at first sight? Do you only get one great love per lifetime? How do YOU know love? 
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I'm getting a 2nd chance at love, true love...

I suddenly found myself raising 3 kids as a divorced Mom 2 years ago after an 18 year marriage. Although I should not have been surprised (and I won't get into the details publicly), it was sudden and unexpected and heart-breaking.

But it was the best decision for myself and my kids.

After a year of  deep healing and personal growth, I entered the dating scene. Dating as a young 20 year old and as a :: cough cough :: 42-year-old are very different experiences. I had entered another dimension! I was told on-line dating sites were THE way to go now...

The idea of joining eHarmony screamed of desperation to me. I wasn't desperate. I just wanted to be social, to find someone to have conversation with, to enjoy the company of a man, something I hadn't had in a decade. But a dating site? Really?

After several, er, interesting dates, I joined a friendship and dating "community" website set up much like Facebook, and it wasn't long before I was ready to hit that delete profile button. I seemed to attract either older men, 60+, or young men, 20s, and nothing inbetween. And I won't mention the women...But one day I saw a status of a 40-something man who posted a photo of his chicken salad lunch. It looked good. I commented.

And that's all, folks!

Thomas and I started messaging back and forth, about every day life, about kids, about single parenting, about God, about salads. We met face-to-fact at Dunkin' Donuts 3 weeks later on May 4th. 

We clicked. We sipped. We talked. We waited for AAA to come. Leave it to me to lock my keys in the van within 2 seconds of meeting him. And we shopped for toilet paper together at the store next door. (We use the same brand. Very important!) He will be forever called TP Guy by my friends.

On June 27th, we changed our Facebook statuses to "in a relationship", deleted our website dating profiles and stopped dating anyone else.

We spent a day at a gorge in the summer. Tom carved this into a
picnic table with LOADS of others.

We knew. We knew we were supposed to be together, to be joined forever. I think when you're :: cough cough :: 40-something you just know if someone is "the one". Life experiences have taught you what's important, what you can't live without, and whether someone will drive you loopy over time...

On May 10th, we'll be tying the knot. Oh, happy day!