THE END

I started this blog almost 1 year ago. A few days after one of the greatest days of my life. Our referral day.That was the day that I was sitting in my office at work when the call that changed my life came. That was the day that I got to see the picture of the little boy that I had been dreaming about, loving and planning for for years. That was the day that I knew life as I knew it was over.

Since then so many things have happened and I have been able to share some of those moments with the friends, family and total strangers that read this blog. I don't really know how many of you there are, but I appreciate all the comments both "on and off the record".

December was a great month for the Laferriere family. There was of course, Tegegn's first snowmen, which turned into an entire snowman family. We stopped at the dogs because we had no idea how to make them stand up. He got to experience his first Christmas, and no he wasn't afraid of Santa. And we are very close to finishing his room. This was something that was very important to me to let him be a part of. Before he came home, we bought a bed, a shelf and a blanket that was it. He picked out his new rug, pictures for the walls, light ect... Now it represents him. Our fun loving, always singing and smiling son that loves the movie Cars. He is honestly a joy to be around.

Tegegn has brought so much to our lives. Watching Celine as a big sister brings tears to my eyes. She is so sweet and caring. She is always wanting to teach him something and is the first person to say good job Tegegn when his figures something out for the first time. I was scared that having a younger brother would change her, and it has, but in a wonderful way. He also makes me enjoy the mornings more. I am not a morning person, but it is very hard to be in a grumpy mood when you wake up to his little voice saying Good morning, I love you mommy. I melt.......

Traveling to Ethiopia to pick up Tegegn changed me forever. I will never forget the poverty that we left behind there, and the faces of all the children. It is what has motivated me to turn 52 scarves into a charity that I am happy to say made $5600 in the first 3 months. We have been able to start renovations on the washrooms facilities at the school we are supporting and so far have paid for 35 children to attend school by paying for their uniform and yearly school fees. It has been a much harder process then I originally thought. The government of Ethiopia doesn't make it easy. They tell you that you must have an office, employ a certain amount of people, do work in certain areas ect..... so it took longer then what we thought, cost more then we thought to start up, but it's working and we are excited about where it will go. We have had alot of good support from friends, family, people I've met in the adoption community and total strangers.

I started this blog for two reasons. After our referral I had a lot of people asking me what was next. I thought that the easiest way to get the information out and only have to tell the story once was on the net. So here we are a year later. He is home and we feel like we are a regular family now. I am back at work, our kids go to school, swimming, karate, soccer, we eat dinner together every night, go to our cottage and live a normal life. The second reason was to be able to let Tegegn know how I was feeling during this year. This is my journal for him to read and know the story, reasons and feelings I had while going through this process.

So, This is it! I don't know how many of you there are out there reading this, but thank you. Thank you for letting me do this. I never thought of myself as someone who would enjoy putting their life out there for total strangers to read, but I have made some wonderful friends through this blog, and it's been a lot of fun. I will leave you with some of my favorite pictures throughout this year.