Laughner's Journey to Ethiopia

I leave for Ethiopia tomorrow evening. I'll spend Sunday night in Washington DC and leave at 9:30 am Monday morning. Internet permitting, I'll be posting to this blog during my trip. There is a large group of us going on this trip. They'll also be posting to their blogs. Peter Kidd Caleb David Candy Tennant Heather Sparr Karen Winstrom Tom Davis (head of Children's Hopechest, the organization leading this trip) Thanks to Karen for compiling this list! Tom

This is pretty amazing. Our church has a Wednesday night "Kids Club." One of the things the kids can do is accumulate points by memorizing verses, participation, etc. Every few weeks, they're able to use their points at a store to get candy, toys, and trinkets. This year, our congregation donated items that could be taken to the orphanages. The kids then had the option to use some of their points to "buy" these items for me to take with me. This picture represents the items the kids bought with their points. Thanks to the Dwight Chapel congregation AND thanks to the kids for their giving spirit!

Two weeks from today I will be on my way to Ethiopia with Children’s Hopechest ( http://www.hopechest.org/ ). We are visiting eight orphanages over ten days in an effort to determine how we might help them meet any needs they may have. We will also be spending time with the kids. I’m looking forward to the trip. When we adopted Daniel last year, Lori and I made a commitment to continue to identify ways to work with the great people of Ethiopia. We met a lot of wonderful people, and I can’t wait to return and find ways to contribute to the countless needs there. We’ve received some great donations from local groups; 80 toothbrushes and 76 tubes of toothpaste from our dentist, socks, vitamins, soap, shoes, balls, band aids, shoes and more from friends. We’ve also received monetary donations. We’ll be using that money to pool with the other folks traveling so we can purchase items while in country. Another group, visiting Uganda, used their combined money to purchase mattresses for one of

One year ago today we met and held our son for the first time! We went to the Transition Home with 6 other families (who were also meeting their kids for the first time). This is where Daniel went to live after leaving the orphanage. We lined up in alphabetical order and they brought our kiddos out to meet us. We all took pictures for each other. Here are pictures of our first meetings with Daniel "Fitsum"! The lower pictures are more recent pictures of him... what a difference a year can make! We are blessed beyond words we have 5 wonderful children with number 6 on the way! We can't begin to put in words how adoption and our Ethiopia journey has touched and changed every member of our family! We can't imagine life without Daniel! He is a true gift from God! Thank you for following our journey and supporting us!