"simply stated...a photography company": forever family day....

i can't even put into words what this day means to our family. those of you that have experienced adoption and the waiting game that comes along with it knows what today feels like. i have experienced carrying a baby in my belly 40 weeks and i've experienced waiting for a child for 6 1/2 months. i can assure you, the latter was the hardest thing i have ever experienced. during our adoption journey. donnie and i went and visited in december when m-s was 10 weeks old and cared for her 5 days, i went back 8 weeks later and cared for her 5 more days. let me just expressed how leaving our daughter in guatemala ripped our hearts out! i have never been so overjoyed for 5 days then saddened beyond words when leaving her! well....the heartache was over on april 21, 2007, when pedro placed malaena-sloan alicia harris in my arms. my world changed more than i ever dreamed it would. her daddy came to guatemala on april 27, and he was overjoyed as well. we spent a week together in guatemala getting to know our baby girl. we really enjoyed this time. when we came home on may 3rd, the rest of the people in her world got to see how amazing she was! aunt chantelle, uncle eric and bianca met us at the airport and it was like 9:30pm on a saturday night! we arrived at our house about midnight and malaena-sloan woke up to perform for all three brothers! it was such a special time.....such amazing memories! didn't think it would get any better, but it has! our baby girl rocks! she is truly amazing and we thank God for choosing us to be her parents!!!!

this was the moment she came to the marriott with pedro for the last time to stay with her mama forever!

this was right after pedro left and i stripped the three layers of clothes off of her and let her play on the floor! she was free-birding it and lovin' being with her mama!