Laughner's Journey to Ethiopia

Today is finally our last day of school. Today is Allison's last day as a 6th grader. She will be leaving Chestnut Hill and will be moving on to Jabbish Brooks. Allison has had a great year. She was in a play, played piano for the pit band of another play, played clarinet in the 6th grade band, was in the 6th grade chorus, accomplished another year of piano lessons, played basketball, passed the safe sitter course, had great grades all year, among other things. Today is Michael's last day as a 3rd grader at Swift River. He will be moving up to Chestnut Hill school. Michael has had a great year. He played, soccer(3 sessions), basketball, flag football, is taking guitar lessons, has had great grades, and been a part of many other things this year. Today is Benjamin's last day as a kindergartner. He is leaving Cold Spring School, and moving up to Swift River. He has had a great year. He played two sessions of soccer, t-ball, flag football, and made many new friends. He had a g...

Our Daniel that we all know and love, even when he stuffs things down the toilet and Dad is out of town. Yes that is duct tape holding the lid down, no you can not use the toilet, yes you need to go all the way upstairs to use the toilet. Happy Fathers Day Dad, you get to take the toilet apart when you get back from CA. Michael turned 9 this week. We went to Red Robins for his birthday lunch. He got a new guitar, strap, and carrying case. He had 10 boys over Sat. from 4:30-9:00 to celebrate. We had challenges, a digital scavenger hunt, bingo, pizza, and ice cream sundaes. It is hard to believe that he could be 9 and going into 4th grade. We had a fireplace and bookshelves built in. This took a while but was worth the wait.

"Think of the plight of the orphan somewhere right now out there in the world. It's not just that she's lonely. It's that she has NO inheritance, no future. With every passing year she's less "cute," less adoptable. In just a few years, on her eighteenth birthday, she'll be expelled from the orphanage or from "the system." What will happen to her then? Maybe she'll join the military or find some job training. Maybe she'll stare at a tile on the ceiling above her as her body is violated by a man who's willing to pay her enough to eat for a day, alone in a back alley or in front of a camera crew of strangers. Maybe she'll place a revolver in her mouth or tie a rope around her neck, knowing NO ONE will have to deal with her except, once again the bureaucratic "authorities" who can clean up the mess she leaves behind. Can you feel the force of such desperation? Jesus can. She's his little sister. What if a mighty ba...