My parents are Cheryl Panattoni and my father is Frank Lagana. My mother's grandparents immigrated from Bigliolo near Pisa (northern Italy) and my father's family came from Calabria (Southern Italy). Growing up, I would consider having a decently normal childhood at least as far as my parents knew, later it would come out that I was abused sexually by someone in the family from the time I was 3 years old until I put a stop to it at 15 years old. My parents gave birth to my sister, Breanna Nichole in 1993 when I was 11 years old. She was my everything and I was absolutely obsessed with her and I would even go as far as saying that she was my baby. 

I worked my first real job at the Folsom Chamber of Commerce when I was 13 years old and I loved being able to bring in my own income. I was a cereal monogamist when it came to relationships with boys starting at 14 where I lost my virginity after dating him a year. We eventually broke up because he started to get mentally abusive and threaten self harm if we ever broke up. I started working at the Folsom Florist when I was 15 years old and I loved that job immensely. I got to be alone, clean flower stems, and listen to music. On my 16th birthday, I got my driver's license and started working at Speedee Oil Change where I met my next boyfriend, Sean. He was a lot older than me (he was 21) but we hit it off and things were easy, or so it seemed. Over the next couple of years, I saved up over $6000, found my first apartment in Cameron Park and moved out of my parents house on my 18th birthday and never looked back. In childhood, we tend to put our parents on an unrealistic platform and when you become an adult, you can quickly see the cracks that have formed over the years and have been temporarily bandaged. My relationship with Sean ended because he became physically abusive and would try and isolate me from my friends and family to have more control over my life. 

In 2000, at the age of 18, I started working at the Folsom Home Depot. I met Brad in  who I would later marry in June of 2006 and have our son Andrew Dayle in 2007. At first, the relationship was easy and we enjoyed our time together but after the birth of our son, I quickly realized my son and I were no longer a priority for him. We officially split in 2010 after a year of counseling. 

Not necessarily looking to get into another relationship, I put my head down and focused on my son and it was just him and I for a while until I met Sotirios at the end of 2010. Again, not wanting a relationship, I told him not to get attached and that we would remain friends until I was in a better headspace. Things went well and we decided to become official in 2011 where I met his then 3-year-old daughter Ava. 

Sotirios came from a family who owned a restaurant in Penryn and his father Gus immigrated from Greece. His mother was aged in appearance and outwardly seemed sweet until you crossed her. I quickly learned that when she would speak to me about Sotirios' ex wife, Kara. She told me that Kara had an affair with Sotirios' friend Dustin and ultimately left the marriage. Sotirios found out because Ava recognized Dustin's house while they were driving around one day with her. Sotirios had an arrangement that he could visit with Ava once a week as long as he gave Kara 48 hours notice. Sometimes, he would give her 47 hours notice so she would pull the visitation for the week. Being naive to not getting along with the person who gave you a child, I assumed it was all a miscommunication. I was wrong for thinking that. After meeting me, Kara decided I was a threat and she would consistently try and use the child protective system to control the situation to her liking. She called CPS and told them that my 2 year old son Andrew sexually molested their 3 year old daughter Ava. Which was clearly a false accusation and I was furious. The judge had to err on the side of caution and we were slapped with a restraining order and supervised visitation with Ava (which meant us paying $100 for a one hour visit, one time a week while a stranger sat in the room and recorded everything that was said and done). Kara would comb through the supervised visitation paperwork to try and find anything she could use against us. She also told CPS that I was a neglectful mother and that my son had to have leaned this sexual behavior from somewhere insisting he was molested. Having my own history with sexual abuse, I was absolutely dumbfounded that anyone would do this to not only another mother who was trying to be in her daughter's life, but to the children this affected. It would take over a year to finally be placed in front of a judge that told her to stop what she was doing and granted us 50/50 custody. We were also ordered to attend parental counseling with Kara and her husband Dustin. We fought so hard to get Ava back and to be honest, I was experiencing PTSD from it. I was terrified that something similar would happen again. Kara would try her best to make things difficult for Sotirios and myself as parents and I was oftentimes reminded that I was not actually Ava's mother, that I was not to volunteer in Ava's classroom, that I was not to bring Ava to princess movies because that was the job of her actual mother...extremely petty things. Even today, the relationship isn't great but Ava being older, she has a little more control over her own schedule. 

In 2012, I found out that I was pregnant but ultimately had a miscarriage which I directly relate to the stress with Kara. In 2013, I found out I was pregnant again and Sotirios proposed to me on Thanksgiving day November 28th. On December 2nd, we were married in an intimate ceremony on the beach of Tahoe by his friend Eric who got ordained and Darcie serving as witness. Andrew and Ava were the only other people in attendance, it was perfect.  I delivered my second son Leonidas. He was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 4 years old and it has been an eyeopening experience navigating those waters as parents. 

In 2016, I decided to become a gestational surrogate for a family in China. The mother and father arrived two weeks before my due date and they didn't speak English but we were able to communicate by an app called WhatsApp. The deliver went smoothly and it was beautiful to see them all together as a family. I started to hemorrhage shortly after delivery and I lost a lot of blood. I considered it my near death experience because I felt so warm and at peace when I was loosing the blood. My husband was terrified that he would loose me and they were able to bring me back to him. It was discovered that I had something called a Velimus Cord Insertion which was related to the genetics of the embryo. It was not something they tested or could see in an ultrasound. This type of thing is usually responsible for late term miscarriages and death of the mother due to the cord separating from the placenta. Beyond the hectic delivery, I loved the experience so much that I decided to do it a second time in 2018 with another family in China. The journey went smoothly until I went into spontaneous labor at 35 week gestation. I delivered the baby safely and the baby's mother was not yet in the United States and she asked if I would be willing to nurse the baby until she got there which was something I was honored to do. My third and final surrogacy journey was in 2019 for another family in China. I delivered during the height of Covid in 2020, 10 weeks early. The parents could not get through the China boarder due to Covid and were stuck there for 6 weeks. During that time, I visited the baby every single day, held her, brought her milk that I was able to pump, and recorded her mother's singing voice so the baby could hear her mother. Being able to be a surrogate for three families is something I hold close to my heart and I still have a relationship with every journey's parents. 

I decided to go back to school in 2020 and finish out my Associate degrees in Psychology, Graphic Design, Marketing, Natural Science, Social & Behavioral Science, and Business. I achieved 6 associate degrees at Sierra College. In the fall of 2023 at 40 years old, I started attending Sac State to achieve my bachelors in Marketing. 

I currently own my own Virtual Assistant business called I'm On It! Virtual Assistant Services and I have clients all over the United States. I get to learn new things, implement new business protocols, and meet new people so it is really a perfect thing for me. 

Some of my favorite passtimes include Photography and camping with my husband. I very much look forward to seeing my years pass with my husband and watch our children grow into adults.