One Sought Me

We would like to officially announce to you that a very special little person will be joining our family VERY SOON! Surprise!   We are adopting! It's a girl!!  We cannot wait to bring our little girl home, hold her in our arms, and provide her with a safe, healthy, and loving family as she grows.  She is 7 years old and with a complicated past, our newest child needs to come home as soon as possible.  She will need prayers as she adjusts and heals.  We will need prayers for strength, understanding, and God's covering to be over us as we walk beside her.  Please commit this to your daily prayers. Our family has already been busy taking steps of faith and has begun this process.  For the remaining costs of legal fees and travel, we are asking for you gifts to join into this blessing of adoption! When you give financially, you become invested in the ministry of orphan care along with us.  Our fundraising goal is a remaining $13,000 to bring our daughter home. Please, we a

In loving tribute to the brave parents of terminally ill children, my friends.  Much love and continued prayers as you turn to the Lord for healing through difficult days.  Dear Momma, I love you so much.  I know you have prayed to me to be blessed with a child. I  hear your plea and I see how very much you desire this.  I know that you have hopes and dreams for her, for her future, and to watch her enter this world with happiness. I remember, even when you were a little girl, you you wanted to be a mother one day.  I know what you want.  Ultimately you want this child to be happy, safe, have a good life, be bold in her believes, and to watch her grow to stand strong for hope in a world that too often hurts.  I hear your heart and I want all those things and so much more for your child, and for you.  I love you more than you know!  It'd be my pleasure and great joy to bless you with a very, very special child. But before I create a brand new and unique individual and intrus

A warm and wonderful Mother's Day to all our new guests and long time supporting friends!  Yes, it's been awhile friends, but we are trying to get back to blogging and sharing about family life and adoption ministry!  UPDATES soon!!!  But, new friends, WELCOME and stop in again as we catch up from our crazy life! Much love, The Vogtmans

After the end of the school year rush of dance recitals, gymnastics show, cub scout honors, baseball, birthdays, summer starting...and all the sudden Father's Day is here and we are celebrating as a family...then it hits me - Tarik's never had a dad before . He's never had a dad to say "Happy Father's Day,"  but this day, he does.  A loving daddy came for him. A daddy who longed for him and started searching for his child, even before the child was born. A daddy who planned, prepared, and promised to find his child no matter what the timeline, costs, or sacrifice.  Would a child actually come home?  Would we wait so long?  Would our family dynamics change?  What about the financial costs?  Would the child love in return?  Yes. This daddy said "yes."  Yes he would go and yes he would love courageously no matter what the risks or blind steps needed to take.   I admire my husband and the father of our children.  His love for his children,

The firsts that I don't want to share. When we started our adoption process nearly 3 years ago, Christmas was always a mile marker.  We began in December 2012 and Christmas was always the one event that we wished for Tarik to be home. "Maybe next Christmas" turned into "maybe next Christmas."  When asked when we thought that Tarik would be home, we'd say, "hopefully by Christmas." The holidays were hard in the waiting time and just wanting the family to all be together for those holiday moments pulled at our hearts.   Finally, this year, 2015 was our first Christmas home with our new son!  And the reality of Christmas, couldn't have been farther from what I ever imagined of our first Christmas to be together.  It was Tarik's first Christmas home.  A time to celebrate and be joyful!  After all this time of waiting.  But it also turned into the first Christmas without my dad.  Not a 'first' I want to share. My dad is a heal

Having had said our goodbyes to Saturday morning sleep-ins a long time ago (as soon as our first child arrived to be exact), it wasn't a surprise to us that when bringing our new son home from an orphanage in Ethiopia, that sleep schedules and bedtime routines would be changing. The jet lag from traveling over 18 hours of flight time and layovers lasted nearly one week for Todd and I, but our new son Tarik quickly adjusted to day time and night times.  Ethiopia time is opposite of the time in the Eastern USA.  For example, it is currently 8:46 p.m. on a Thursday here in the states and it is 4:46 a.m. in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on a Friday morning. The first night we had Tarik out of the orphanage he fell asleep in my arms, lying in bed, while he drank his "too-toe" (that means bottle in Amharic language), his bottle of formula.  That was easy! It was peaceful and I was utterly grateful to have him in my arms at last. About an hour later Tarik woke up in a frantic and i