Laughner's Journey to Ethiopia

September 30, 2009 Dear family and friends, In April of 2006, we made the decision to undertake an international adoption. We learned a lot about faith, God's timing, true love, true need, desperate circumstances, Ethiopia (Africa), and how easy it is to love an orphan. The end result of our adoption from Ethiopia is a very special addition to our family ten months ago – Daniel Fitsum. Many people point out how blessed he is to have us. We respond how blessed we are to have him in our family. We can't thank God enough for how much this journey has changed our lives. While in Ethiopia we experienced the Ethiopian culture and people; they are wonderful. While there, we also saw the impact of the AIDS crisis, the food shortage, the lack of health care, and poverty unlike most of us have ever seen. Spending time in Ethiopia: around town, the orphanages, transition home, and spending time with our guide, who shared with us what life is like in Ethiopia, fundamentally changed us. We...

We have decided on our adoption t-shirt. What do you think? We have just ordered them and they should be here soon. Let us know if you would be interested in purchasing one. The text inside the bubble says "adoption" in Amharic!

DINOSAUR TRAIN embraces and celebrates the fascination that preschoolers have with both dinosaurs and trains. The series encourages basic scientific thinking and skills as the audience learns about life science, natural history and paleontology. Each of the 40 half-hour episodes features Buddy, an adorable preschool age Tyrannosaurus Rex, and his adoptive Pteranodon family as they board the DINOSAUR TRAIN and embark on whimsical voyages through prehistoric jungles, swamps, volcanoes and oceans. The episodes include two 11-minute animated stories, along with brief live action segments hosted by renowned paleontologist Dr. Scott Sampson, that unearth basic concepts in life science, natural history and paleontology. Dinosaur Train is Daiel's new favorite show. He is in love with dinosaurs. So there was no surprise when he picked out a dinosaur costume for Halloween. Daniel is so excited when he gets the dinosaur costume at Target that he has this big dinosaur sitting on his lap in the...

The Branson Reunion was incredible... I just want to say thank you to all the families that worked so hard to make it possible. Thank you also to all the families that made the journey. I can't even begin to describe what it was like to meet all the families that we have shared this journey with. It was amazing to see so many healthy smiling faces from Ethiopia. I loved seeing the families that took pictures of Daniel in the transition home and prayed over him before we got to meet him. It was incredible to see the little ones again that we met in the transition home. We had the opportunity to meet many families and can't wait to meet up again some day! Adoption is a wonderful life changing journey and I am so glad to have shared it with all of you!