Marriage Monday

I found out about Marriage Mondays by reading Christine's blog "Fruit in Season" so decided to post about her latest question "what was it about my husband?"
Meeting my husband was a direct answer to prayer. I was crying out to God in loneliness. I was in a church where there were not many single, career women in their late 20's. I had been done with graduate school for 2 years and was teaching full time in an inner city special education prek class and loving it. I put my whole soul into that job but I was lonely on the weekends. It seemed like everyone at the church I was attending was married with hordes of kids! It was not a particularly friendly church either, especially towards singles, although I did like attending there as I had a couple of good friends there. I had some good friends I kept in touch with from college, but many of them were scattered across the state, also finishing up grad work and/or teaching/working.
One afternoon I was praying that the Lord would send me a good close male friend. I had had a "best friend" in college (undergraduate) who was very close but he too was now married! And he was in another state working on his masters......I missed our friendship, devotional times, prayer times, etc. We were still in touch but it was not the same. I was so happy for him and his new wife but I was wanting that too! At age 29 I was wondering if it was ever gonna happen with a decent born-again Christian man. At age 25 I almost married the "wrong man" but thank the Lord I listened to the Spirit of God Who was saying No! I was content being single and teaching but I was also starting to want to "settle down" and have children. Plus, I just wanted a close male friend to hang out with! The Lord answered my prayer that very afternoon by having my phone ring. It was my future husband wondering if I wanted to help him out with some music. (we were both in the music ministry at our church). I knew who D. was but didn't know him all that well. I just knew he was a recent graduate from a local college who was working on his masters. He came over to my apt. A good friend of mine was hanging out with me but she had to leave so it ended up being just D. and I. We talked on my porch until about 2 a.m. I knew this man would be a good friend. We had alot in common like music, ideas about working, how many children we wanted some day, stuff like that. We hung out all summer. We began to realize that the Lord was moving us in the direction of dating. It was awesome! I was dating my best friend! On one of our first "real" dates (I actually was the one who initiated it!) we were walking in a historic little town in the Berkshire Mts. and we both saw a beautiful dragonfly on the side of a parked car. This became our "thing". The dragonfly was like D to me. It was strong, yet gentle. Exactly what I wanted in a man. He is a strong person emotionally, physically and spiritually. Yet he is gentle in his ways and does not become easily angered. This was important to me. He helped me out on a field trip one day that I took with my class (I had to teach summer school for 6 weeks) and that showed me how he would be as a future father. He was great with the kids! And he is great with ours!
I guess to summarize what it was about D that made me fall in love with him I would have to say his strong spiritual life, his gentle ways, his humor, and the fact that he loved being spontaneous! He still buys me dragonfly pins or earrings and he still makes me laugh. He is the spiritual leader in our house and urges me to pray about every decision we make as a team. He listens to me and takes into account any fears I might have about the future and he is an awesome daddy to the gorgeous daughters we have created together! He doesn't care if I am a stay at home mom, a full time teacher or a part time teacher. He just wants me to be happy and content. He even knows how to cook! All of those things are what I am thankful for and I praise God for him every day!