It was July 31, 2009.

The rain poured down on I-90 as though God broke the promise He made to never flood the earth again. What normally was a 2-hour drive home from Boston turned into 4 hours. No bueno. I had an…umm…”appointment” later that evening that I did not want to be late for.

I was about to go on a date. A blind date…sorta.

But as I should have expected, the nerves set in. I called my best friend about 45 minutes before I had to be at Starbucks. I begged and pleaded with her to “let” me back down. I could just send a text message saying my appointment in Boston earlier that day went late…..or that the rush hour traffic was now bad….or the rain slowed things down….or that there was an accident on the highway…or…or….I could have come up with a million and two legitimate reasons not to make it to that blind date (sorta). The bottom line, though, is that I was scared. Scared to death. I just didn’t do stuff like this. This dating thing. Especially this sorta-blind-dating thing. But she didn’t back down. She reiterated over and over that I met new people all the time, and I should just treat this appointment as I would any other. I skeptically and hesitantly gave in. I agreed to show up, talk for 20-30 minutes, barely give him a chance to speak, and then leave. Sayonara. Arrivederci! Adios, Amigo.

But Someone had different plans.

The moment I pulled into that Starbucks parking lot the skies parted and sun started shining down. On the distant horizon, painted in the most beautiful array of colors I have ever seen was a breathtakingly beautiful rainbow. In that moment, as I put on one last coat of lip gloss…you know, just I case he was actually halfway decent… I had peace in my heart. Suddenly all the nerves left me, and it was as though God Himself reached down from heaven, put His hand on my shoulder and said “Trust me on this one.” So I did. And, boy was He right.

Those 30 minutes quickly turned into 4.5 hours. We could have stayed longer except that the manager of Starbucks asked us to leave because it was already 30 minutes past closing time. He went his way and I went mine. I don’t think either of us had a clue that we had just said goodnight for the first time to the person that was to be the one we would say that to for the rest of our lives.

Although I left Starbucks that night with a smile on both my face and my heart, I was still resistant and skeptical. I was not ready to put my heart out there again. But he was patient. I was afraid of getting hurt. But he was gentle. I was afraid that, like so many others guys I had interacted with, he would be too passive. But instead he spoke to me firmly and with conviction, and challenged me right from the start. I was scared that he would have some skeletons in his closet or some issues that would push me away. But instead he proved to me little by little from day one until now that he has more integrity than any man I have ever met.

At first I was ashamed to say this, but now I say it with a smile on my face and excitement in my voice – eHarmony worked for me. It was there that I met the man that I plan on marrying sometime in the near future. It was there that I found my soul mate, the one I have been dreaming about and praying for since I was a little girl. And it was there that I found a home for my heart.

As that colorful rainbow faded into a beautiful sunset and eventually turned into a sky filled with sparkling stars, I was reminded of a lyric that has more meaning to me now than it ever did before…

…somewhere over the rainbow dreams really do come true.

Happy E-nniversary, Babe! I love you!