Just a little about Us...

It's the one day every little girl dreams of. The big fluffy dress. The white horse and carriage. The reception in Cinderellas castle with millions of lush, fragrant flowers pouring over every meticulously placed detail of your wedding day. You run off on your honeymoon and 9 months later you're welcoming home your precious little bundle and blah di blah blah blah. This is far from my reality. Both my fiancé and I are divorced after 10+ years with our exes. The good thing about this is that after that long in a marriage, you make a lot of mistakes. In making those mistakes, you learn a whole lot about yourself and the person you are and want to become. You learn what really matters to you and what motivates you. You know what you want in a partner and the things you can live without. And after what we endured with our divorces and feeling we'd spent a good chunk of our lives devoted to complete strangers. We both still feel life just isn't life without someone to share it with. And so, on a boring late night online... We found each other. We became instant best friends. We spoke about and debated about anything and everything under the sun. He lived in Connecticut. I lived in Florida. Yet somehow we managed to keep each other company through every second of our days through text, pic messaging, IM and video chats. I accompanied him to his kids doctor appointments and he reminded me to pick up AA batteries on my grocery runs. Eventually we realized, we found everything we ever wanted in each other. And now that we have, we promised ourselves not to repeat the same mistakes we made our past relationships. Kind of cliche. Maybe even typical of what two divorcees may say just before taking the plunge... Again. But we don't care. We're two fools in love with being in love and it's totally ok because we're in love with each other.
I've contributed 2 kids into our new family, he has 3. Between the two of us that's five all under the age of 11 whom we lovingly refer to as The Furious Five. The modern day Ecuadorian/ Puerto Rican Brady Bunch. And because we'd forgotten just how we ended up having 5 "surprise" pregnancies (because with each surprise life was just so wonderful), we were reminded of just how little control we had of ourselves and our lives with baby #6. Our precious Mayah. This last and final pregnancy (I promise!) came at an excruciatingly difficult time in both of our lives. Not to mention, it had been eight years since my last baby. Going back to dragging 80 pound baby bags and strollers the size of most SUV's just wasn't what I needed at that moment. It took about 2 seconds after the positive pregnancy test to remind myself... This baby is a gift... And the timing couldn't have been more perfect. Mayah is the ray of light that shone thru my darkest days. One flash of that toothless grin and I turn to mush. Our little bird has brought an enormous amount of joy, smiles and hope to not only my fiancé and I, but to our Furious Five as well.
So here I am in Connecticut. Excited about my new life. Engaged to my best friend. Mom and future step-mom to a tribe of six. Trying to put together the wedding of my dreams with a shoestring budget. Trying to rekindle my love for anything and everything artistic in order to find my calling in life... you know... besides being a mom.  And wondering how I'm ever going to squeeze this size 14 body into a size 8 wedding gown.  Wishful thinking? Maybe. But, oh how I love a challenge!

Some of our most precious memories at a glance...