The program was started by three people: Valerie Thompson, Lisa Smith and Larisa Filatova. Valerie is an adoptive parent of 8 Russian orphans and lives in Midland, Michigan. Lisa Smith has been a Russian adoption facilitator since 1993. Lisa lived in Russia for 10 years and has helped over 1600 Russian orphans to find their forever homes. Larisa Filatova is a Russian citizen now living and working in the US as Head Translator and Logistical Coordinator of the Lighthouse Project.

The program started as a result of having invited the kids of Lisa Smith's Russian adoption coordinators, from Russia, to visit Valerie Thompson and her family in Midland, Michigan during the summer of 1998. All the kids had a great time and Valerie together with Lisa began talking about doing a similar trip the following summer, but next time, with orphans. The vacation bible school was a key component of the trip as it still is today. It is the main thing that makes our program different from the many other Russian orphan hosting programs around the country.

The first group of 18 orphans arrived for our first Lighthouse trip in the summer of 1999 to Midland, MI. Many of the children became adopted. Subsequent Lighthouse trips began to happen as a result of the interest generated from the first trip. Our friends in other states began to be interested to know more about the program and offered to do Lighthouse trips to their own states; with the key component of the trip remaining the vacation bible school activity program during the 10 day stay.

Since 1998, the Lighthouse Project has coordinated over 55 trips to 6 different US states.

A key component of our growth has been National Volunteer Coordinator, Becky DeNooy, from Grand Rapids, MI. Becky, a former adoptive family who adopted through our program, became involved with us in 2003 and has helped to coordinate 15 trips since then. She has helped to connect hundreds of American families with their 'forever' children and we are blessed to have Becky as a key part of our team.

As of September, 2009 the Russian government has put a temporary halt on all children's groups being able to travel to the US because of swine flu. They are fearful their children will become ill if they travel to the US. We therefore decided to do "Reverse" Lighthouse Project trips - offering American parents the chance to travel to Russia to sightsee and meet the kids over in Russia. Our first trip was in October 2009 and was such a success that we have decided to expand the program. Subsequent trips are planned for January 7 - 12 and March 26 - 31, 2010.