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!

My PreSchool Graduate & TV Stars

For weeks now Logan would wake up and ask me if it was summer yet. He asked countless times "Monny, when I come home from school will it be summer?" Well, summer is finally here. Logan is an official preschool graduate. I am excited that he has a few weeks off before starting what we call in the special ed world ESY or Extended School Year. Logan and his teacher for the past 3 years. We are going to miss her! She helped Logan so, so much.

His teacher opening up the gift from the class. We got her and the classroom aide gift certificates to the local outlet mall and a picture of the class with all of the kids' names on the matte.

Back in February I attended a luncheon/auction for one of the places that Logan receives therapy at and attends summer classes at called Hattie Larlham. Hattie is an incredible place that does SO much for so many kids. Many of them are profoundly disabled. One of the "items" up for auction was to have your kids be a "Bus Stop Forcast Kid"......basically the kids are shown on the weather at our NBC affliate so people know how to dress for the day. Well, I bidded (that word looks weird??) on the auction and won! Today was our filming at the station for the "Summer Fun Kids". I went to great lengths to plan their outfits and props and it all went by so fast. Logan did AWESOME! Devon....not so much. She did NOT want to stay on the white background and when she did, she just cried. Oh well. Such is life. At one point, Logan said "Baby sister is done"......lol. He knows how to call it!

The spots are going to start airing on June 8th and run through August. The station manager said that he would send a VHS tape in a few weeks so. He also gave us a tour and Logan and Devon got to sit behind the news desk. It was really fun and cool.

Logan with his dino umbrella and Devon skipping town....lol.

Why can't we film on the morning show set??

Momma's "Anchorman" with Devon and Daddy being silly in the background.

Since we were downtown, we decided to hit a Cleveland Central American restaurant called "La Feliz Tortilla (aka The Happy Tortilla). It was sooooo freakin' yummy. My mojito was out of this world and so was the food :) Devon gobbled up the fried plantains and frijoles. Daddy and Logan had a Cubano sandwich and I had a tamale (came steamed in a banana leaf) and enchiladas done on a round crispy tortilla with red sauce, cabage and eggs. Way yummy! We will be back.

Dude, where's my food???

My boy loves his salt!

Devon kept saying "Happy" when she was eating her plantains. She DOES look happy, huh?

Lordie Lou, is this schtuff gooooood!

I Covet this VAN!!!

DUDE!!!! VW is coming out with a van this Fall called the Routan. Do normal people get geeked over stuff like this? We are major Vee-Dub fans around this house and I was so bummed that they didn't offer a van when it was time for me to turn in the old Passat. I did some reading up on it and it appears that it is basically a Town & Country with the cute little happy VW circle on the front. I'm down with that because I already have a T&C and like it plenty. Now I need to wait until my lease is up in June of 2010.....lol. I'm sure they'll have ironed out all of the kinks by then :)

I'm feeling SUPER sentimental today. Today was Logan's last official day of preschool. It was toy washing day :) Tomorrow we go to a park for a class picnic. Then he moves on the big world of Kindergarten. His teachers are so incredible. They made us scrapbooks with pictures and art and little sayings from throughout the year. I read it and had a big, fat cry. My baby is growing up!

Two Zoos and a Beach

Holy Hamburgers! Have we been busy! I'm not complaining.....we've had a blast and I've loved every minute of it.

We started with our 1st zoo adventure with Logan's class to the Akron Zoo. I was so thankful that Curly took the day off from work to join us. He and Logan rode out on the bus and Devon and I drove out in the van. We had so much fun with his friends from school. We've been to the zoo plenty of times but this was the 1st time that Devon "got" that you were there to see animals. She was off the hook jumping up and down in her stroller shreiking "doggy" and "kitty" at all of the animals that were neither doggies or kitties....lol.

On Friday I had a "Girl's Night" and I haven't done that in eons. My BFF's and I went to a salon for mani's and pedi's. I treated myself to French on the nails and toes. I broke my will and had pink and white acrylics put on. I haven't worn them since Logan was born and I looooooove them :)

Hanging in front of the waterfall
Logan and his teacher......tomorrow is his last day of pre-school :(
Mama's little Happy Feet
Soooo cute :)

On Saturday we headed to the Cleveland Zoo for an annual picnic that our adoption agency has. It was so awesome seeing friends that we made on our visit and pick up trips and fellow bloggers. The weather was beautiful! We had a parade behind our country's flag throughout the zoo and then came back to the pavillion to the song "Coming to America" by Neil Diamond. It gave me goosebumps. Devon was a dancing fool! My girl has mooooooves! I was so impressed that our agency invited Dignitaries from Guatemala to see how happy the children and families were. We wanted to put a face to the paperwork, so to speak. Right now, adoptions are on hold for new cases in Guatemala and friends who started before the closing are in a terrible holding pattern waiting to bring their children home. I really hope that it changes for the better. It keeps me up at night thinking about the children who cannot be placed and don't have room in the overflowing orphanages.

Thumbs up for balloons and cotton candy!
Oh pu-leeez! No autographs! LOL
Marching in the parade of nations.
How pretty is she her?
Dancing her sandals off!

I am sooo happy that the weather turned out OK today. They were predicting rain but we ended up dodging it. We took out Uncle Shawn's new boat and caught some rays. We did a little swimming but the water on the lake was still kind of cold from all of the rain and cooler temps in the past weeks. We cooked up and ate, ate, ate!! A few of my favorite things :)

Bathing beauty alert!
Here wanna eat some of this sand?? It's tasty.....NOT!

Logan, Daddy, Aunt Fannie and Uncle Shawn on Unc's new boat. Sweet ride!
Aunt Schell's in the smoking section on the boat
Vogue!

Giggles Devon and Aunt Fannie :)

Well, tomorrow is Logan's last official day of pre-school. I cannot believe that my little man is growing up and on to Kindergarten next year. We have another fun filled week in store and I wouldn't have it any other way :)