Laughner's Journey to Ethiopia

As we have been preparing for our adoption and travel, our children have been thinking of ways to help. One of the projects they decided on is McDonald's Happy Meal Toys. Three of our children worked together to save up their Happy Meal Toys to donate to the children in Ethiopia. They also made a poster telling about our adoption. Today they took their poster to McDonald's in Belchertown, and asked to talk to the manager. They explained what they were doing and asked if they would be willing to donate any old Happy Meal Toys. You can imagine the look on their faces when the manager brought them this box full. Thank you so much to the Belchertown McDonald's. The Poster! What they have collected so far!

On Friday we received our new travel packet! The first group of travelers received tentative travel dates of October 25th. I guess this means that we will have to wait until November to travel.We should be in the second group to travel after the courts re-open. We have started packing up stuff for Daniel and our donations. We have also started to put together all of the paperwork that we will need to take with us. The courts re-open on October the 8th, that is 15 more days! We are praying that things will go smoothly and we will see lots of progress. There are a lot of families that have been affected by the court closure. We can't wait to see the courts passing cases and adoptions being approved. We will update with tentative dates when we receive them. Congratulations to the families that received their tentative travel dates. We are praying for all of you!

Today, America World (our adoption agency) had a conference call for families with referrals that are waiting to travel. We will no longer be staying at the Hilton, they are looking into Guest Houses for us to stay in during our stay in Ethiopia. From the sounds of it, it will be a little more cozy and home like. We will be staying with the other families in our travel group. We will also be able to learn more about the Ethiopian culture in the Guest House than we would have at the hotel. They are hoping to send two large groups (6-8 families) in October, November, One large group in December, and two more in January, to catch up after the court closure. We hope to be in one of the October groups or the first in November. The Ethiopian courts re-open on Oct. 8th. I am thinking that passing court that week would be a great Birthday present. We have been buying the things that we are going to need to take for Daniel, gifts for the workers and donations for the transition home and orphana...