Laughner's Journey to Ethiopia

I can't believe it we have been home for two weeks! We arrived at the Boston Airport on Saturday around 2:00 pm, we were greeted by Benjamin, Michael, Grandma, Grandpa, and The Steiger Family. We hung out at the airport to talk and play on the playground for a while. We then made the two hour drive home. Daniel's first car seat ride went well, he slept the whole way home. We arrived home a little after 6:00 and Lori and Daniel were in bed by a little after 7:00. We had been traveling for 30 hours. Sunday we just took our time getting around and just hung out. The first couple of days Daniel was terrified of the dog and wanted to be right with us. His sleeping habits were rough. He was not used to the eight hour time difference or the new schedules. He was used to getting bottles every two hours and woke up in the night for bottles. He was using his bottle for a pacifier. We went to the doctor on Monday morning, he weighed 21.7 pounds and was 30 1/2 inches. He got a clean bill o...

Here are some pictures of our little guy! Danielle the One Family Pictures are for you. The other photo is to show you that the two big brooms are Daniel's favorite toys the last couple of days. Today we started working on some wooden puzzles. He also only woke up twice in the night. Yeah! Today we are off to be kindergarten show and tell. Next week we are 3rd and 6th grade show and tell. Have a great weekend!

Well we have been home for almost 2 weeks. Daniel is doing great. He is so adjusted and attached. We just need to get more sleep at night. It just seems that he has always been a part of our family. He is so happy and full of life. I can't wait for all of you to meet him in person. Here are some new pictures that I wanted to share.

I think we are turning the corner... 1. Daniel seems to be feeling better! 2. Daniel actually enjoyed his bath, for the first time. (KP the orange towel pic is for you) 3. The dog can actually be in the house and walk past without Daniel screaming! Enjoy the pictures...

We just came from the doctor, Daniel has an ear infection, upper respiratory infection, and his lungs sound junky! He has lost almost a pound since Monday! He has been vomiting a lot from all the mucous that is draining. We started him on an antibiotic today! Please pray for our little guy! We are going to continue Pedialyte for another 24 hours to keep him hydrated. He has had two doctor visits this week, a blood draw and stool samples taken. Welcome to the US. Other than being sick he is doing great. He is just the sweetest little guy with a big personality! We can't thank you enough for all the prayers during our journey to Ethiopia. We are so excited for all the families that are getting ready to leave this week to pick up their kids. Please know that we are praying for you!

Hi just a short post to say that we are home! We made it safely and Daniel did great! We arrived back at Boston just before 2:00. Our boys, Grandma and Grandpa, and the Steiger family were there to welcome us home. The Steigers were holding signs and balloons. When we were part way down the escalator Daniel saw Michael and the Benjamin and got excited.... I think he recognized them from his photo book we sent him. He went right to them. He then let everyone hug and hold him. We took lots of photos, but I don't have ours uploaded yet. However Lenka was very sweet to send me an email with some of the 97 photos that she took, so here are some pictures of the home coming.

Hello again. It is Thursday night! We went to Kids Care Orphanage today. That is where Daniel lived from March 31st until June 10th. It was really sad to see all the kids there that do not have families waiting to pick them up. We got some great videos of the older kids in their school singing the ABC's and singing in Amharic. We passed out granola bars and dum dums. We also took some playground balls. When we took Daniel into the home and told the nannies, that we had Fitsum, they just went crazy. They were so excited to see him. They held him and kissed him, and spent time talking to him. One of them talked to him in Amharic and Robel our guide translated it for us on video. There were rooms of healthy children, rooms of sick kids, rooms of toddlers, and the school house of about 30 kids. The kids just couldn't get enough attention from us. I went around the school house and the toddler room and got down to their level and hugged every one of them. It was all I could do to no...