…. Seems to be finally here! It has been so very long since I have blogged and it is SO nice to get back at it again! After leaving Gainesville and moving here, we were excited for this new chapter yet it felt like things were also on pause until we could get settled in and have Sam here with us. After he was laid off when the economy took a dive, we were apprehensive about him quitting his job without having a new one lined up. We knew it would take a few months but those few months turned into six months, and then a year, and then a year and a half and just when we felt like we simply could not take another day of living that CRAZy lifestyle..he got the call with an offer. It really is true, God never gives us more than we can handle. We have SO MANY friends and family to thank for helping us out as we lived the single parent life. First and foremost, our dear friends Justin and Jen welcomed my man into their home and let him live there on the days he worked in Gainesville. This allowed us to have renters in our home and was such a tremendous help, there are no words to adequately thank them! Also, my Aunt Sandra and Uncle Tom welcomed Sammy and me into their home until we found a house and closed on it up here & again, there are no words to express our gratitude.
Now with Sam in his new job there are no more dreaded good byes after his days off end, we are all feeling like we can finally exhale. Things are SO MUCH EASIER! I feel like I have my life back, I can actually have time to myself. I sure have developed a new found appreciation for single moms through it all. It was exhausting! We are settled nicely into a routine, Sammy is thriving at his prek, we found a great church, and Sam and I both LOVE our jobs. We have made some great friends and thankfully have wonderful neighbors who have become like family to us. We love living so close to both sets of our parents, we get to see them all so much more now. Our house is about 10 or 15 min from the beach and we have really enjoyed that. So, life is good. Life is GREAT actually. God has really blown our socks off with all of the blessings he has given us in this move to St. Augustine.
Hannah moved in for the summer and as I posted before & that went even better than expected. I was worried about going from having one child to two but life was easier with her here to be honest. She is such a good girl, HUGE help for me. She volunteered to clean and help cook and was great at entertaining Sammy. She loved her summer camp and made so many friends there and in our neighborhood. She got to have her first sleepover and yes I was a nervous wreck but it went well for the most part. It just warms my heart to see her with her little girlfriends here. She has grown up so fast, and is turning into a little lady right before our eyes. We just celebrated her 11th birthday, which I still can’t believe. How is my baby girl ELEVEN?? it is crazy to think she was Sammy’s age now, 4, when we were matched. Time flies! She went back to Gainesville for school and so now are back to seeing her only on weekends when we can work out a way to meet half way with her Gma, which is hard on all of us. Its hard to not be a part of her everyday. Sammy still adores her and includes her in all of his family pics he colors. We have such a weird situation b/c she is not a DeLucca officially but yet she feels like one of us and its hard to explain to him when people ask if its his sister. She really is like a sister to him so he gets upset if someone says she is not. Its funny though, sometimes when he gets in trouble he will try to blame it on Hannah, even though she is in Gville at the time!
All in all it was a great year for us, full of transitions, but each one brought unexpected blessings. I was able to travel with Sammy to visit our fam in TN, and my travel for work allowed for me to meet up with friends in several different cities for conferences, in fact I even made it up to Canada! Our mission trip to Guatemala was amazing and as always, we returned feeling like we were more blessed for going than they were in having us. We even picked up a new sponsor kid, Smith, while there and added him to our family. More on Smith & Guatemala later, that gets its own post.
Well this has grown long enough so I will end for now, I want to do my best to catch this blog up b/c I have learned I forget sweet special moments of this stage of our lives if it doesn’t make it on the blog. What’s a post without pics? Here are a few from the last year. Enjoy!
This is my baby when we were packing to move, look how much he has grown in a year and a half!
We are pretty sure that God had it all planned out for us to move right across the street from Ashley, or rather “Actually” as Sammy calls her, they have the best time together
May be hard to believe but yes, my man traded in his sports car for a giant honkin’ bubba truck- came about from the Dave Ramsey total money makeover, we love it!
Reading his Valentine’s from school
Sammy and Malia have known each other since they were babies but just this year Sammy declared that he is “gonna marry his girl” and loves her to pieces
We had to cancel our Disney plans thanks to my morning sickness but we still made it down to Downtown Disney for a few hours, Sammy doesn’t know the difference since we haven’t been to the real thing yet so he was as happy as could be!
Playing with friends
Ice cream floats with Hannah Banana at neighborhood garage sale
We have some awesome new parks to enjoy, this one was at Swing Park, our #1 fav
Monster Truck Show- fun night but we only lasted about 30 min of the show before we had all had enough, so we left and got a frosty at Wendy’s, they were just as happy there, can we say WASTE of tickets?
The artists at work.. Apparently these goggles helped him see the colors better
Hannah’s bff up here in St. Augustine, the two of them are two peas in a pod and have the best time together
I get him all to myself when big girls are telling secrets oh and by the way… our ice cream shop has RED VELVET ice cream. That alone was worth the move in my book
Meet Buzzy the Bunny.. he appeared here in our backyard on Easter morning and has not left yet. Buzzy now has a friend, Tiger the Bunny, who joins him each morning. Fun!
