I loved dating after my divorce. The first time I was dating I was only 19 years old. Dating when you are older is very different.
I am getting married in a little over a week to a sweet, nice gentleman. We have been dating over two years and are still head over heels in love! Have hope! Wonderful men are out there, especially at your age! Just yesterday my new guy said "I hope we are always this happy." I said "We will make sure we are." (He was left by his wife after 20 years of marriage a year before I was left by my husband after 20 years of marriage.)
Regarding the lawyer, please make sure everything is explicit. I have had a lot of problems with my psycho ex because the parenting agreement used words like "reasonable" and was too generic. If you are dealing with a crazy person, you need to have everything explicit. For example, my ex calls every day to talk to the kids and has a fit if we are busy eating dinner or out and do not immediately return his call. They call him back 95% of the time, but on those 5% of the time that they do not talk to him until the next day, I get nasty ranting email messages that I am interfering with his phone calls. Also, I have had a lot of trouble with holiday visitation times. Make sure there are explicit start and end dates with explicit times for EVERY holiday.
Me45 H45 D13 S10 together-23 years married-21 years MLC Divorced 10/3/07 Married to a wonderful new man.