My wife whom I met on E/H was one of my 8 "original" matches I received after completing the survey. We did not meet until nearly a year after my subscription expired. It was about 17 months after we were originally matched before we first met. I actually met 5 other ladies(E/H matches)before I met my wife.

I made this post to another discussion board before I realized this board was a better home for it.

Our story so far.:

I've processed perhaps 40 to 60 profiles and initiated a few contacts. Only one responded. I was initially luke warm because I was worried we may not have the right chemistry, but her questions and answers through the controlled communication really started to ignite my interest. By the time we agreed to a phone call, I was starting to get excited.

We spoke for around 2 hours. No pregnant pauses. We seemed to have so much in common. We decided to meet in an Italian restaurant in Manhattan the following day. I was still worried that there'd be no chemistry, but I already knew I had found someone special. She is so open and honest, and our views and thinking overlap so much. At the very least, I was convinced I'd found someone who would end up being a close friend.

We hit it off so well, it was incredible. I really had to use all my self control not to reach for her hand at several points. We hugged as she got on her bus, I have to say all doubts about chemistry vanished. I walked to get my train knowing I'd met someone very, very special; someone who was positively triggering all my emotions and the physical attraction I felt was very real.

The next day I drove up to see her. I was concerned she so readily gave me her home phone number and address - concerned for her safety should she do this with other matches, but she assured me she'd never done this before. She said she was totally, 100% comfortable giving them to me because she'd never met anyone like me and knew she was totally safe doing so. I still don't recommend it to anyone, regardless of how safe you feel. We had a great day together. She is the most incredible woman I've ever met in my life. She is so open about everything, especially her feelings, and she loves the fact I do the same. We are so alike in so many ways, I can hardly believe it. I keep thinking surely I can't be that lucky that quickly. She has a caregiver personality like me and it just seems to fit so well.

We did some fun things together, although to be honest, we were talking so much and finding out about each others background that we barely noticed what we were actually doing. I stayed over, but it was never planned, and only intended to maximize our time together the following day. We went to Church together, and I really enjoyed it.

She is one of the most emotionally open and loving woman I've ever met. Its truly amazing. She has spent her life wanting to find someone who would appreciate the simple things such as touching and cuddling, someone who didn't have a list of restrictions to be adhered to, someone not afraid to tell their innermost thoughts and listen to their partner sharing theirs. Now how much could that sentence have started 'I' instead of 'She' and everything would still fit perfectly.

Of course, we are each nailing our feet to the floor because this is a minute step in the overall journey, but I really think this relationship has huge potential. She is so considerate of me and my needs, I just didn't know how to deal with it a lot of the time. Seriously, if I wrote a book on my perfect woman and how she'd treat me and all the important things I would look for in her, she is on chapter 12 already, and no other woman has got beyond chapter 2. It is very frightening to me. I didn't ever in my wildest dreams expect to get this close a match on what I've been looking for. We are both just sponges soaking up the elements of the other that we'd never been allowed to experience before in our other relationships. I have to say it's blowing my mind! On one level I'm totally scared by just how compatible we seem. In 3 days, I've shared more of what makes me me with this woman than I have with any other bar possibly my therapist. But even there, she's fast catching up and I've already told her things I haven't shared with my therapist.

I'm in total shock and disbelief. We are both petrified we going to wake up and find it was a dream, or that the other will find something they can't accept and the potential will be killed. But we both feel so connected and so comfortable with each other already.

On the 3rd day, we agreed we are officially boyfriend/girlfriend and closed off all our other matches.

We've been trying to cool it this week by not seeing each other. We are going to Cape May for the weekend. We've decided we're going to alternate weekends - I organized and paid for everything last weekend, she is doing it next weekend, and so on. I think it's a really awesome idea as it more or less guarantees we each get to do what we enjoy ourselves, and get to sample what the other likes. And we share the costs.

I'm sorry, as you can tell I'm very excited....and very scared. I really think I'm on to something really special with her. She treats me like no other woman has ever done before. I've never felt so loved and cared for by anyone else bar my mother and my children. I'm just totally stunned.

I just don't know what else to say!! Maybe it isn't all down to the matching process, but at least it proves some good matches make it through. And there is one certainty - I wouldn't have met Lori without eHarmony.

But ask me again in 12 months if I still think I've found my soul mate.

Hi Everyone:

It happens that I stumbled across this post, however, the funny thing about it is that I am Lori... I am the one who met Steve, that's right, the poster before me. Everything he so beautifully wrote is true. I joined match about six weeks before Steve. I wrote to a few people but thought that this site was not for me. No one really struck me as someone I would want to date. I had even cancelled my subscription, but they kept sending me matches till my three month's ran out. Then I received Steve's match. I loved what he wrote in his profile, but wasn't sure from his picture if the chemistry would be there. Many times I had read that you shouldn't judge a match by looks, so I decided to meet him and see what he's all about.

Our first date was to meet at an Italian restaurant for dinner. I am nervously looking up and down the block hoping I would spot Steve. Steve didn't come down the street I expected, but I did see someone who resembled him coming from the other way. However, this man was so strikingly handsome. When our eyes met I couldn't help but instantly smile and remember saying to myself "this could be the one." The entire evening was just perfect. He was kind, soft spoken, considerate, intelligent, genuinely interested in me, the warmest smile, and so handsome to boot! I couldn't believe how fortunate I was to meet a man of this caliber. We have been dating now for a few weeks and i'm not sure who is crazier about the other -- him or me! We are so, so matched. We practically read each other's mind.

I cannot tell everyone how happy I am and how bright our futures are. This match is truly a dream come true. He is everything I have ever wanted and more!

I feel so lucky and fortunate, so don't give up on eHarmony... you never know if that special someone is just around the corner waiting for you too!

Lori

Congratulations! Hope things are still going so well. When I first signed up for eH, I was really curious about the whole process, so, instead of waiting for a guy to contact me, I picked one of my initial seven "matches" from the very first day I signed up. I never initiated contact with another "match" or even read a profile or communication from anyone else that made me even remotely interested in meeting them. Luckily, my eH guinea pig kept writing back, and we met about two weeks after I had first contacted him. I don't think we haven't seen each other for more than two days since then. Believe me, I never would have expected it to happen like this either. I don't think it's at all typical - I feel very, very lucky. It's wayyy too early to even contemplate thinking about calling him "the one", but I'm sure not looking for anyone else right now.