My guest blogger is Laura Solomon, author of Normal Life and a blogger thereview52.blogspot.com As a single mother of 9 children under the age of thirteen, she had the most unique experience meeting the love of her life 16 years ago which she shares with us from an excerpt from her book.
“One morning, I took the kids to daycare. I sat for a few minutes in the baby room with my dark sunglasses on, in front of the large bay window at the daycare holding my youngest baby and enjoying a few minutes with him before I rushed back to work. The young woman in the nursery sat on the floor next to me and gently explained that, “they all knew” that my ex-husband abused me. They could tell by my face (and the obvious dark sunglasses worn indoors) and the way I rarely dropped the kids off, so as not to see anyone. I was embarrassed that anyone knew but relieved that at least in this small way, it wasn’t a secret anymore.
I had tears streaming down my face as I looked out the window at a hot guy in a black leather coat, looking like Neo from The Matrix, taking his young sons out of a maroon Alpha Romeo sports car, and giggled with the daycare worker that at this point I had no real option but to stay with my husband. I explained that it wasn’t like anyone like THAT guy was looking to marry a broad with 7 kids.
It was at that one moment where I first thought that, even in a joke, there might be hope. It was a moment of possibility. I do believe that God gives us previews of things to come. It is our job to notice them and act on them. Then again, sometimes you can just stumble onto happiness. In my case, it was a preview.
If every single thing that occurs is meant to lead us to the next thing, this was an awakening. Soon after that, I filed for divorce.
I went searching for “the right kind of guy” on JDate. I entered my ridiculous and totally unattainable search criteria: 35-40, educated, law-enforcement background, divorced with children. Because there are so many Jews in law enforcement? But what the hell, I could ask.
The next day, Army Man emailed me and asked me out. We had sushi for 6 hours and although he was, well… a little hard to get out of his shell after ten years in the military, he was polite and very intelligent. He also had an ass you could bounce a quarter off. He was used to communal living in the barracks, so the 14 little shoes from my 7 children didn’t make his skin crawl and he even found the children amusing. He had two boys of his own, so together we were quite a crowd. Eight boys and one girl, all under the age of 13. Nice.
One time, we met at the park with the kids. After noticing a rock wedged up The Baby’s nose, he used a stick as a surgical tool to remove a rock that The Baby had apparently shoved up there. Any guy who could do surgery at the park with a stick was a capable man.
This was only the beginning of the thousand ways Army Man has healed my heart and made me believe again. Army Man changed me. He gave me hope. He explained, I was meant to be loved by him. I just knew there was no passage back to the place I was in before. I had made a list of everything I wanted he had come true.
This Army Man was different from other men I had known. I had to forgive Army Man for what all the other men had done to me before he came along. And, get this… one day we discussed where our kids had gone to daycare in the past. Turns out, HE wore a black leather jacket and drove an burgundy Alpha Romeo. Shivers.
It’s been 15 years that we’ve lived happily ever after.
