One Sought Me

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas in celebrating the birth of HOPE to all people through the baby Jesus the Christ! Thanking you all for the continued prayers for our family as we journey through this adoption! We are grateful and praising GOD for our Christmas blessing of receiving the much awaited paperwork from Ethiopia! Read about it here.   We are thrilled that now our paperwork has arrived at it's next destination with the United States Immigration offices who will review the case and continue to move us forward to bringing our little boy home!! Prayers for continued progress as we go through these next phases.  This next-step time frame has been estimated at 3-6 months until we are ready to travel to Ethiopia for the court date and to meet Tarik.  God's timing! May 2015 be a blessing to all!   Merry Christmas!  Todd, Erin, and kiddos! 

AHHHH!!!! Jumping up and down!! While we were at church this morning (Sunday), Fed Ex called and left a message on our answering machine that the Fed Ex is coming TOMORROW (Monday) with our papers from Ethiopia!!!! THANK GOD!! Oh, that poor Fed Ex man better brace himself for a screaming welcome!! YESSSSS!!!!! Keep praying for next steps! Then, about a half hour later the door bell rings!  I sent Todd to get the door and overhear him saying, "Just wait one minute, this is a very important delivery for us."  WHAT???  There was a gray Toyota outside....  But I go around to the door and IT'S THE FED EX MAN!!!  The package from Ethiopia arrived and a day early!!!! Since it is a busy Christmas time of the year for deliveries this Fed Ex unit had a rental truck to get moving on a Sunday to make deliveries!  We had him pose for a picture and told him how thrilled we were!  He was happy to be a Fed Ex man bringing good news!   SO VERY EXCITED!!   Thanks to God for hea

Thank you all for praying along with us for this adoption process !! Last week we really asked for deep prayers (read here) from everyone and anyone to really lift up in pleas to the Lord to let nothing get in the way of His plans.  The one paper, that needs to be signed from the officials in Ethiopia by one person....and it's been delayed for 5 months.....it has been hard to wait. Last week in my prayers I was asking the Lord for comfort in knowing that it will all be all right. During church we were reminded of the Lord as our shepherd and how he leads us weary, straying sheep to the calm, still, refreshing waters.  In a real shepherds daily life, he would lead the sheep to graze, drink, rest, and travel along paths.  Some paths would wind up the mountains.  A narrow path with a steep drop off to one side and a wall of the rock mountain to the other.  The shepherd would tap his rod on the rock of the mountain so the sound would echo behind to the sheep following.  They would

Thank you for your prayers for our adoption journey.  Early on in our adoption process, I was told that this was going to be long journey and a rough road.  I didn't want to listen to that, but knew that as with any adventure in life, 'those' types of roads are quite possibly the ones we will end up traveling. Not us though, right?  Ours will be easy and smooth sailing - nope. Turns out, this fellow was right and we are smack in the middle of a pit in the road.  We do thank you for your prayers for our little boy and we are grateful that his health continues to be strong!  We do thank you for your prayers for us, as it is an emotional roller coaster.  There are days we feel confident, days we question, days we are hopeful, and days when are hearts sink. Lately, it's been hard as we reach the 2 year mark in this process and yet another Christmas is going to pass by without our new family member home with us to celebrate. It's been hard as we compare (and I know,

All I want for Christmas is......  What about you?  What is on your Christmas wish list this year?  It doesn't take long for our kids at home to sit down and write out a list of goodies they would like to find under the tree on Christmas morning.  It doesn't take me long either! All I want for Christmas is a little white Fed Ex truck to come zooming down my road carrying tidings of adoption papers and joy! The crisp, white package would say "To: The Vogtmans, From : Ethiopia Adoption Officials."  Is that too much to ask? Sigh. Well, humor aside - As many of you know we are waiting and waiting for one set of paperwork to be signed and processed to us from Ethiopia where our 1 year old little boy is waiting to be joined with his forever family.  We started this process in December of 2012 and God has brought us a long way! We accepted a referral of a little boy in July 2014 and now wait for the next step.  It's a bit late coming - to say it nicely.  We shoul