As if I imagined him into being...

I left my husband eight years ago this month. If you had told me at that time that I would live alone for the next eight years, I wouldn't have believed you. Being so full of love and life and laughter and a desperate desire to LIVE, I thought surely there would be a LINE of men waiting to be with me.
Well, there were a few. But very few. In the last eight years I dated MAYBE eight men. None of them seriously. Most of them...one date. Yep, deep into about year four, I became the master of the 20 minute date. It wasn't that the guys were not kind or nice or charming or whatever...
it's just that they were not him.
The one.
My soulmate.
I began to make a list of qualities that I was looking for in my soul mate. I was explicit and decisively descriptive. And, a little over two years ago, I started to talk to him. Yes, out loud, telling him how excited I was for him to come into my life, how much fun we were going to have and how I was so ready for his arrival.
I wrote out my list of 'must haves', 'must not haves' and 'would be nice ifs"...
I had always had the feeling that HE was not quite ready. And I promised myself that I would live and enjoy EVERY second of life while I waited for it to be the right time for him as well.
I knew that I would know it without a doubt...
And, I did.
He has arrived. 
When I tell you that he has every single quality that I had written down--down to the silliest of the 'would be nice if' list, I promise you, I'm not exaggerating.
 I had written that I would like him to be the same age as me--but a couple of months older would be nice. He is 2 months and 6 days older than me.
I had written that it would be nice if he grew up in the same area. Well, we went to high school together. Is that close enough?
I had written that I would LOVE to be with someone who enjoyed food but was greatly concerned with watching his weight...and was in good shape. And, yep, he gets on the scale more often than I do yet LOVES biscuits and gravy, deep fried chicken sandwiches and even the occasional donut!
I wrote that he must be kind and loving and friendly and happy. That he must not take life so seriously. That he must love baseball and GET it and SPEAK it and WATCH it! Not only is he the happiest man I've ever known, he takes things in stride, he finds solutions to problems and OH does he love baseball. (He even worked for the Angels for a while!)
When I talked to him at night...back before I met him...I told him that I knew we'd be best friends and that I would talk with him like I've never talked to a man before. I cannot tell you how EASY it is to be with him...he talks, he LISTENS, he remembers, he offers advice, he gives me a different perspective...
I had written that I would love for him to have a deep, emotional side...a tender, caring, feeling heart. I have to tell you, this has been so refreshing for me. He cries in movies, when I read something to him, when he hears a romantic song...
Of all the things I wrote down all these years regarding my dream man, the one I would STAR and UNDERLINE and BOLD was "he has to want to kiss me a lot..." (mind you, it's not just 'he has to kiss me a lot...but WANT to kiss me a lot.)
I can truly and honestly tell you that I have kissed this man more than I have kissed ALL the other men in my life combined...times TEN! He holds me close and touches me and dances with me in the kitchen and sings with me and laughs with me...
and WANTS to kiss me a lot...and does!

I have been absent from the blogging world for a month or so.
I've been distracted, amazed and dazzled by a man.
Oh wait, not just A man...
the man.

He has arrived.  And OH was he worth the wait.
He is my best friend, my soulmate, my encourager, my entertainer, my partner, my team mate, my helper, my joy...the undoubtable love of my life.

He is exactly the man I had hoped for, dreamed of and, seemingly, imagined into being.