A Year Ago ~~ Forever in our Arms

It was a year ago today that Guadalupe, Devon's Foster Mom, place her in our arms forever. It was one of my life's most joyous times and from that moment on my life has only gotten better with Devon in our life.

I remember Curly and I being so excited and nervous as we waited for Guadalupe and her husband to ring our hotel room. She was so small and precious as she slept in Guadalupe's arms. Guadalupe was so sad to have to say goodbye to her that I didn't immediately reach out and take her out of respect. She needed that time to say goodbye to our angel that she loved for 8 months and I had a lifetime of love ahead of me with her. Slowly she handed her to me and I remember just staring at her and crying. She was so little. Only 13 pounds. She woke up and looked a little confused. Then in typical Devon fashion she immediately started blowing raspberries. This made me laugh out loud (and those of you that know me know how loud that really is! LOL). She stopped and looked at me and smiled as if she remembered my laugh from our visit trip and she began to laugh. My daughter looked at me and smiled and laughed and my heart skipped a beat. It was the end of a journey that led us to her but the beginning of our lifetime together. Man, oh man do I love my daughter Devon with every ounce of my soul.

We're going out to dinner tonight (shocker I know....lol) for a mini-celebration but we are holding out until July 3rd for the full blown celebration because that is the day that we landed back home and when Logan got to see his baby sister again. That is our "Forever Family Day" and I cannot wait to celebrate it for years to come :)

She was so tired after meeting us that she immediately napped in her crib.

Daddy's Little Princess Playing

OMG ~~ Playing MAJOR Catch Up!

Holy Moley! I cannot believe what a bad bloggin' mamma I've been! Almost one month. I promise that we are still here, just busy, busy, busy. I also started back doing ebay after I realized that my stimulus check was going to come later and be less than I thought (WTG GWB.....ya tool).

I have to say that we have been loving summer over here at Casa de Santilli. Curly took the 1st week of June off to hang with us and that was awesome. We had so much fun just being a family. Poor Curly had a "honey-do" list a mile long :) Then Logan had a week of Safety Town, which was adorable and well planned out. After that he had a week of camp with his speech therapist Holly. Right now we are on a 2 week camp break before he starts up again.

Here are some pictures from the last month for my faithful (lol) blog readers....all 2 of you out there :)
These pics are from The Memphis Kiddie Park. When Curly was off from work, we went there for the day and had a blast.

Don't let this face fool you.......this was Logan's 1st reaction to the roller coaster. After this, he must have rode it 10 times in a row. In fact he ended up with a huge blister from running off of it and looping back over to us to get another ticket then getting back into line.
Gotta love Devon's reaction to her 1st ride. She was like WTH are you putting me on?? After it started moving, she realized that it was fun and perked right up.

Devon LOVES pushing her stroller. I need to get her a carriage for her babies.

How cute are these two bugs?

Sprinkler FUN :)

We had the fun of celebrating our little buddies birthday, Christian. Here are a few pics from that day. It was HOT but Gina busted out the sprinkler for the kids.

Talking on the phone just like Mommy Swinging
Sweaty and Sweet :)

Christian smiling away at his cake.

Here are some pictures from Logan's Safety Town graduation.

Logan running with excitement

Devon clapping for Big Brother

Logan getting his awards


We've been spending a lot of time out in the water this summer. I am so thankful that I have little fishies :)

Logan finished his soccer season this past Saturday. I think we found his sport. He loved it and did so well.

The team Getting his trophy.
Logan loving on his trophy. He is sooooo proud of it! It has his name and we have it displayed on our entertainment center.

On Tuesday, we went to a little old amusement park in Erie with my mom and dad. It was so cute and just the perfect size for the kids. Grandpa went on all kinds of roller coasters and spinny rides with Logan. I swear, my dad is so awesome!

OK, that's all for now. I promise that I won't be such a stranger from now on :)

Peace!