This year my family and I wanted to do something different for Thanksgiving. What we came up with was to go to Disney World.

We had a great time and since we’re season ticket holders, we’ll be there alot more during the next 11 months

Here’s some pictures that Joanne took of the kids. All four of us.

Friends are a very rare jewel indeed, they make you smile; encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us. Show your friends how much you care. Remember to always be there for them, even when you need them more. Cherish the time you have, and the memories you share. Being friends with someone is not an opportunity but a sweet responsibility.

Over the years I’ve met thousands of people, work with hundreds, but I can count on one hand how many friends I have.

Yesterday my family and I went to the Sarah Palin rally that was in our city. We’ve never been to one before and the experience was a good one. We got there early and were able to get right up to the stage (or as close we were allowed).

The funny thing about the whole rally was how my daughter and I were a little too interested in the secret service men than with the speeches from the candidates. Here’s a picture of Sarah from the rally.

Joanne and I got married on June 4, 1994. Before we got married we discussed about having children. We agreed that we wanted to have more than two children. We were expecting to have at least one biological child since Joanne was already in her thirties and we were running our dance studio at the time. We also agreed that we would most likely adopt a child. Joanne’s brother was adopted and we both have friends that were too.

After trying to conceive a child for a couple of years, we were still not successful (though we had a lot of fun trying). We started to look into adoption and to see what was involved with the procedures. Not long afterwards we decided to move to Florida, so the adoption had to be put on hold since the lawyer we were dealing with didn’t have a license to practice law there.

After we finished moving, Joanne start looking in to what we needed to do to adopt. Shortly afterward we started with the home study. When we told the case worker that we would be adopting other children eventually, she suggested that we might want to think about adopting a sibling group. We thought about it for a couple of days and agreed on adopting a sibling group.

I don’t want to go too much into the steps that Joanne and I had to go through or the long period before the adoption was finalized (from start to finish it took one year). This post is just to introduce the wonderful family that Joanne and I have created.

We have three kids, Cimion (sim-e-on), Shawna and Jacqueline, when we met them they were 10, 7, and 4. They were (still to this day) very cute and good looking. When the adoption was finalized on October 30, 2003, they all celebrated a birthday. It’s now been five years and I don’t know what my life would be without them in my life. They have brought me such great joy and excitement and look forward to watching them grow up.

In future post I will talk about each one individually.

Today would have been my mother’s 68th birthday. Unfortunately she was diognosed with cervical cancer in 1999 and lost the battle on April 26th, 2001. I wanted to let all that read this blog what this day means to me.

I love you mom and I miss you greatly