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Christmas Prayer

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 should have had the paperwork 3 weeks after referral and now we are nearing 6 months past.  It's been a long journey on day 1 and it's long and hard now on day 140 something.

It is very hard to wait; mentally, emotionally, and spiritually it is difficult.  It's hard to know that there is a little boy being raised in an orphanage and then a family here who long to be together. But there is this huge gap in between our family.  It doesn't make sense.

We question 'why?' then turn to God and hand it over to Him.  There is literally one signature needed on a paper on a desk in an office in Ethiopia that is the stall to our process.  We have been assured by our agency that nothing is a 'problem' or 'wrong' with our case - it's just about the paper getting signed.

My family and I are asking you for prayer.  The deep, on your knees, earnest prayers that can move mountains, heal wounds, drive a lady to sign a paper, cross paperwork over the oceans, faithful prayers of the saints gathered together type of prayers!

Will you please join us in prayer? For the week of December 7th we earnestly ask that you will remember our boy, Tarik, in prayer and daily lift up this adoption process to move forward smoothly.  Not one day passes that God isn't working for the cause of the orphan! And we Praise Him for that!  We thank you for taking our petitions to the feet of Jesus with us.

Psalm 68:6 "God places the lonely in families..."

I know God hears our prayers in our whispers or in our shouting pleas, yet we want to join together in a chorus voice crying out for this orphan, Tarik, to be placed into our family.  God set us on this journey and He will be faithful to see us through.  Our prayers are that nothing, no paper, no person, no works of the enemy, will be standing in our way to this precious boy.  Please join us as we pray for a breakthrough and God's work to be done above all. Thank you so much for caring enough to take the time to pray!

Psalm 61:1-3 O God, listen to my cry!
    Hear my prayer!
From the ends of the earth,
    I cry to you for help
    when my heart is overwhelmed.
Lead me to the towering rock of safety,
    for you are my safe refuge,
    a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.



Philippians 1:6 "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;"


Todd and Erin





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