dreams really do come true. like really.

Germans have a way of starting their fairy tales that, translated, means, "In a place that was not here, in a time that was not now..."

And, honestly I have spent the last several days feeling that way. As though I was some magical fairy tale princess in a time and place that exist beyond what my reality is and has been. But let's start at the beginning, shall we...

I suppose the real fairy tale starts here, 


but this portion starts off with me, as a writer and Literary Director for a glamorous lifestyle magazine, getting to try out the glamorous spa procedure of threading, wherein a woman exfoliates and plucks your entire face with barbed thread. In case you were wondering, it hurts like what you would expect ripping hair off your face with barbed thread would feel like. For two days, however, I couldn't get enough of looking at myself in a mirror. My skin looked baby fresh and glowing and my make up smoothed on like butter.

Then, my extremely sensitive skin had an allergic reaction called folliculitis wherein patches of my hair follicles on my cheeks became infected and welt-like lesions formed. I looked like every bad cartoon teenager with acne. And this was the day before I was going to California for a  visit to see my Mr. Perfect. (Visit four, and five if you count when he came here to see me). I warned him that I looked like Quasimodo-face and he said to come anyway, he'd still take me. So, I did, hoping we'd spend the majority of our visit in movie theaters and taking night time walks. Maybe I would even get a genie veil.

But as I got off the plane in Long Beach and saw him waiting for me with his cute smile and his cute hair and his cute crinkly eyes, I didn't care if my head suddenly turned into a giant antlered purple moose, I was just so happy to see him and hug him again.
 
And he didn't immediately sweep me off to a dark place either. True to his word, he took me just as I was and even lovingly reassured me I didn't look bad at all.  We picked up his sweet girls and went to eat dinner at IKEA and play 'pretend to go to Narnia' in the closet displays :)

Early Saturday morning, we went to the temple in Newport Beach together. It's a beautiful, peaceful, perfect place. Afterwards, we went for a walk around the temple grounds and sat down on a bench--I thought just to keep watching the fountains and hills.

"I think we need to talk about marriage," said Mr. Perfect.

This wasn't a new topic for us. We'd been discussing it hypothetically as any couple who knows they don't want to stay single and dating forever do. But then, in his adorable nervous way, he asked if he should get down on one knee, and before I could really process what was happening, he was asking me to marry him. 

MARRY HIM?!?!

Here was the man I had loved almost upon first sight 17 months before--the man I had so carefully hid my feelings from because he was dating other people and I was dating other people, and I didn't think he felt the same about me anyway, or ever could because of our distance. Whose friendship and kindness and talent and humor I had simply enjoyed over the time, and whose break up woes I had listened to (and he, mine). Whose hand I never even thought I would get to hold, and yet here he was, with my hand held firmly in his, asking me to be his wife!

He explained that for the last few years of his single life, he'd been looking for a lightening bolt moment, when he would just *know* that he'd met the right one. I hadn't hit him like that. But what I had done is just what I used to joke with him I did with people--grow on them like a fungus. A nice, pretty fungus. Maybe one made of orange glitter. And, really, I think God had thrown a lightening bolt the moment we met--it just missed him and hit me instead. I knew instinctively and almost immediately that he was the one for me. That we would be perfect for and with each other, and compliment each other like peanut butter and chocolate. It had been a long, happy, and sometimes tearful wait for him to see the same thing I did, but he had. Finally. His eyes were opened. He was sold on me. He was in love with me.

And of course, I said yes. 

I think I said it about 852 times.

Then we held hands and jumped in a circle because that was just exactly how I felt! It was all so unexpected but thrilling, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. He surprised me, and it is NOT easy to surprise me because my imagination generally covers all bases :)

The next few days I was there were a whirlwind of trying to grasp reality--telling my kids, his mom, his kids, his family, his friends, his co-workers. (All thrilled!)  Being introduced as his fiance'. And he kept holding my hand and presenting me proudly (remember, I still look like Quasimodo-face...bless his darling heart!). 

We decided that our courtship had been long enough and that we would just try to make things happen as quickly as possible--get the boys and I moved to California before the end of the Christmas holidays. We set a November 29 wedding date and mapped out all that would have to be done: Me selling my house, helping to train someone new for my job, finding a new host for my radio show, a home for our cat, how to get us and all our stuff moved down and in. He had his list of stuff to accomplish too.

Our main focus was just on getting us all together but we decided to try to do some type of modest "Hey! We got married, come say hi but don't bring presents!" type thing.

He doesn't have much money but infinite talent and bright possibilities. My situation is the same. We should be scared--and we are, a little, but not really. Someone much bigger than both of us is shuffling us along in faith here.  Not that the journey will be easy, but things are already starting to fall rapidly into place and I trust they will continue.

And as crazy, fairy-tale as it may sound, in just two months--I think we can pull it off and I will be Mrs. Perfect. And we will have a gorgeous combined bunch of little Perfects. And a mother Perfect and a sister Perfect and a little dog Perfect to add all the more joy to life.

For the 4 1/2 years I've been single, I have dreamed of the day writing this post would come. The day I would get to say--I MADE IT! I DID IT! WHAT A RIDE! I FINALLY GET TO GET OFF! For as much as I am certain that marriage will not be the end of my problems, it WILL be the end of enduring problems alone. It will mean less fear. No more cold toes in bed and palatable late night silences when it feels not a soul in the world is aware of me. Less heaviness in my heart. Less of those moments when I see or hear something and want so badly to turn to someone and say, "Look at that!"... only to realize there is no one there. I get a hand to hold. A shoulder to plop my head on to. Someone to cheer on and be cheered by. A counselor. A best friend. Someone to bake for and kiss when he comes home and call mine. Mine. Mine.

I contemplated ending my blog at this point. It seems it would have come full circle in its reaches to help those struggling as faithful, creative, single mothers/fathers to know they're not alone. But, I think it needs to keep going. Because, married or single, we all still face similar challenges and I am more than  happy to share what I've learned about faith, optimism, perspective, and enduring. I think I still have some useful words to offer.

Plus--I'm sure you all want to follow along to see if we pull this crazy two month whirlwind life change off, right?

So, I'll keep you updated--knowing we WILL do it. Because all my craziest endeavors have been the ones that have managed to pay off thus far.  And I trust my Mr. Perfect. I trust he will take good care of my heart and my boys. That we will work through everything together because of our shared faith and determination and desire to bless and serve others. That good things will happen for us all at once...and in degrees.

Now I write this ending because I believe it. I believe it with every inch of my healed heart...

And they lived happily every after :)