Laughner's Journey to Ethiopia

10 referrals of children ranging from 0-10 were made in the month of June. The family who recently received an infant girl referral had a DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) of October 15 2008. The family who recently received an infant boy referral had a DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) of November 21 2008. Based on the new referrals the wait time for an infant girl and infant boy as well as toddlers is currently 7-9 months. 32 children have come home with their adoptive families in 2008. America World families have received 35 referrals since January of this year. 7 of these children were from the Waiting Children list. Where does that leave the Laughner Family? As far as we know we are number four in line. The families in the #1 and #2 spot waiting for referrals are waiting for girls, the #3 family is waiting for young siblings, then our family for a request of either sex under 24 months. As far as I know we are next in line for a little boy. Ten referrals in one month is so exciting. Let us all kee...

Hi. I'm busting in on Lori's blog to post a short message. I'm not sure why, but I've been hesitant throughout this process to ask for financial help on this adoption. I've never been one to ask others for money. I also felt that if we were going to make this commitment, we should figure out how to take on the responsibility for the finances. With airfare increasing so much over the past year, I reluctantly agreed to do some fundraising. If there was a product people were getting, it wouldn't seem like we were going to people with our hands out. We started selling the t-shirts and bags and have been grateful to the folks who have purchased them. Some of the folks I work with suggested we sell Lori's incredible peppermint patties. The response to those has been tremendous. Because of the peppermint patty deliveries around campus (I work at Smith College), word has really been getting around on our adoption. There have been lots of words of encouragement and s...

This was full fun weekend starting on Thursday going to Monday. We had lots of different activities. I am starting with Monday and going backwards to Thursday. I hope you enjoy all the pictures. On Monday we took the train to New York City. We visited the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Time Square. This is Benjamin posing as the Statue of Liberty with his new souvenirs . He is proud of his decorated crown. He decorated it on the train on the way home. This is Sara and Allison riding the ferris wheel at Toys R Us in Time Square. They really wanted the My Little Pony Car. Here is our car. I got to ride with Michael and Benjamin. They wanted the M&M or Monopoly car. They had fun on this 4 story ferris wheel inside the store. Here we are on the ferry headed to the Statue of Liberty. What a feeling seeing the statue come into view. Here are the kids posing next to to a replica of the foot from the statue. michael was impressed that the toenail was bigger than his whole hand....

This was a busy but fun weekend! We had a nice day celebrating Father's Day with Tom. Here are three of our kids wearing our adoption shirts, "They Are Precious In His Sight". They love wearing them and carrying their bags. Here are Benjamin, Michael, and Allison being silly in a tree. They were having a good time together. Allison was part of the pit band for a "School House Rock JR." play at her school. She played 6 of the 12 songs on the piano. The band sounded great. They had three performances. Here is Benjamin on his new bike. (Michael got a new bike for his birthday so Benjamin got Micheal's too small bike) Michael will be eight years old tomorrow. This is his birthday present! He is proud of the gears and hand brakes. He loves how fast it goes. Allison will be eleven in 13 more days. She also got a new bike for her birthday. They really had fun riding them. We have 2 1/2 days of school left the kids are ready to start summer break. Michael finished s...

There are 5 families in Ethiopia this week. They are excited about meeting their children for the first time and bringing them home. The Kidd Family, Cordell Family, West Family, Gardner Family, and Schaetz Family are all in Ethiopia. you can follow 4 of the family's blogs by clicking on their family name under America World Family Links. You will find this by scrolling down on the left side of the page. These families will be updating about their trip from Ethiopia. Please be praying for these families. There are 3 families with court dates this week, on June 10 th . The Gibson Family, The Raymer Family, and the Ord Family. Please pray for successful court dates for these families. So they can can schedule their travel to pick up their little ones. There are seven families that are waiting for court dates to be scheduled. Wow, many great things are happening with America World. We are praying for many more referrals this week. Our family is in the top ten waiting for a referra...

Look at our new shower curtain for the kids bathroom! I love it. We bought it at Kohls. The kids each have their own color of bath towel. They match the colors on the curtain (Sara pink, Allison blue, Michael green, Benjamin yellow, and the new little one has an orange towel). I thought this curtain was a lot of fun.

For Benjamin's 5th birthday he got a gift card from the McClellan Family in IN. He chose a butterfly kit. We ordered the caterpillars a couple of weeks ago. We watched the caterpillars eat and grow. They then turned into chrysalises, and today 4 of the 5 butterflies came out. They are painted lady butterflies. Two were already out when we woke up. We watched one come out at breakfast, one came out while we were gone, and there is still one chrysalis left to hatch. We released the 4 butterflies today. Here are some pictures of our butterflies. Benjamin was really proud of his butterfly. Thank you McClellan Family. Michael thought that holding it on flowers was good enough! Our butterfly house.