One Sought Me

Imagine a little boy, by his bedside with his head bowed, eyes closed, and hands folded to pray.  He recites with his mother, the Lord's prayer: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our jelly bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:  For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen. Our jelly bread. Cute! Well, bread is better with jelly!  And you know what?  Recently, in our waiting and waiting to get our son through international adoption, the Lord has been teaching me to look for the jelly on my daily bread.  Among this trial and tough time in our lives I learn more each day about God's love for me, my family in my home, our little boy overseas, and for all believers whom He loves. We stand on His promises and His faithfulness never waiv...

PRAYERS PLEASE!  We are thankful to be moving along in the adoption process and late Sunday night (March 15),(Monday, the 16th morning in Ethiopia) the US Embassy in Addis, Ethiopia is holding interviews with those who are involved with our case!!! Please be PRAYING that all goes well on Monday! Then the next step after the embassy clearance is court submissions (when we get closer to our court date to travel)!!! God prepares the way! Proverbs 3:6 " In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."

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 (an...

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 nicel...

We are so thrilled and extremely grateful to the Lord for directing our paths and leading us to this day that we can announce that we accepted a referral of a precious little one!! Our adoption process through Ethiopia has opened our hearts and stretched our minds in ways we never knew possible!  In several ways, Todd and I are not the same people who started off in this journey 2 years ago. And for that, we also praise the Lord for His goodness, His love, and His teachings.  God has shown us more of himself through His word, through life events, provisions, trusting journeys, changes of the course, ups and downs, and now He has shown us His little precious child who needs a family! Finally the day has come that we can announce that we have a referral!!!!!!   Thank you Lord! Our agency called us in the evening and it was a blessing that the entire family was together.  I have our agent's number on a special ring tone so when I heard that it was her, and ...

Dear friends!  I know it's been awhile since I've posted about our waiting for 'the call' to hear news that two children in Ethiopia have been matched with us and well, there just isn't news to share....we wait...we pray...and we see God working all around us!  When we can see and experience the blessings in the wait then I can't imagine the wonderful, God-directed things that are happening that we can't see! All is going well with movements in Ethiopia. Thankfully other families who had their referrals from the January and February time frames are now getting their court dates and will be ready to travel in the upcoming weeks!  More court dates and more children being legally released to the their new families mean new openings that the foster home for new referrals!!  We are praying our turn is soon to come. The kids have really had the referral on their minds and hearts.  For about four days straight now Buggy, our six year old, has wore her adoption...

I'm trying not to look at the blog timeline that on June 24th, 2013 our dossier was mailed off to our adoption agency.  What a day of celebration and relief that was to have all the paperwork completed and out of our hands.  And now, it's been almost a year..... I'm trying not to look that this week our home study expires and we will have to start our paper work process all over again....yes, allllll over again.  Doctor appointments for clear bills of health, bank statements, house inspections, fingerprinting.... more costs! I'm trying not to look that my baby who was a tad older than 2 when we started this process is now weeks away from turning 4. I'm trying not to look at the stack of luggage and travel supplies in my closet just waiting to be put to use. I'm not going to mention our cute little count down calendar has been full for months now and then after moving to adding paper chain links, that I just stuffed it all in the cabinet... .trying n...

"Never say never" is surely a quote I've heard one too many times, and oh how true it is.  The older I get the more I inwardly grin when I hear people say that phrase.  One just never knows what may happen next! When I was a child I would say "I'll never kiss a boy."  When I was a teen I would say, "I'll never read just for the fun of it." and when I was a young adult I would say, "I'll never be a stay-at-home mom." And before I had children I would say, "I'll never own a mini-van." Before my brain turned to mush after having children I would say, "I'll never forget how old I am!" But it' true, sometimes I do!   I never thought I'd be a stay-at-home mom.  I am.  I never thought I'd ever home school our children.  I do.  I never ever thought about adoption especially overseas.  And here we are.  And I'd never thought it would take 32 weeks to be still waiting for a match throug...

I just had to give a shout out of "Thank you LORD!" that MOWA (child protective services equivalent in Ethiopia's system) is moving along with their end of the paper work and signing letters which release children in Ethiopia to be matched with adoptive families!! Yip. yip! This is tremendous news and such an answer to many prayers.  You can read about the hold up in letters here . Since late September the amount of referrals being made have only trickled through leaving many adoptive families in the holding tank waiting.  As adoptive families' wait times carries on and on, children are spending more time of their precious growing years in institutions/orphanages when they could be in their forever family's arms. So the news that referrals are coming and letters are being processed is a huge OPEN DOOR!   You can read about our prayer requests for open doors here. "What is a referral again?" you ask.  A referral is the match of the orphaned child/...

January 7, 2014 Last week's stories of Ethiopia closing to international adoptions are now settling, rumors hushed, and more accurate reports are making their way through adoption agencies then to anxious adoptive families. (You can read about it here and here ). We are told that although Ethiopia has several officials lobbying for international adoption being kept open as an option, there are several against it as well.  These battles will continue but for now international adoptions will remain open and that change, if any, won't happen overnight. Considering what we have seen with the pace of how paperwork moves there, this change won't be happening anytime over the next year either.  So a sigh of relief for sure is due!  "Aaaahhhhhh"....There. Do we feel better now?  Yes? Well, then what is taking so long? (read here, Child in a Paper Pile ) Process, process, and more papers moved, and more process... all in all this is our time to find the joy in th...

Happy New Year 2014 from the Vogtmans!!   And we are ready to have an amazing year full of God's miracles and adventures for our growing family! Lately, with all the emotions of the adoption whirl winds blustering around I find myself searching for answers and stability. I'm a planner type, love making lists and checking items off! So when the future is uncertain or redirected, then that is a true challenge for me in 'letting go and letting God.' Theses times I more often find myself quoting scriptures, singing songs, and even posting scriptures around the house so that my little mind will not wander into the 'what if' frenzy.  (visit these posts for the latest in our adoption news: Child in a Paper Pile and Standing in the Gap ) I am reminded of His power, faithfulness, and grace. I find confidence in reflecting on 2013 and ALLLL that the Lord brought us through, the ways He provided for us, the people that He orchestrated to be in our lives, and learn...

Friends, we are asking with weary hearts for prayer for the children of Ethiopia - Will you join us in storming the gates of Heaven with prayer and petition?  You see, there is huge battle going on of which many are unaware.  That battle is for the rights of abandoned and orphaned children to be loved and cared for in forever families.  What seems to be a basic human right and common sense from one human to understand about another, is being stripped away from the most innocent and vulnerable- those who can't defend themselves, and they are the children. Over the years several countries have closed their doors to international adoptions.  Not because they have grand plans to stop the poverty, or provide for the hurting families.  Not because they are setting up systems in their own country to support the children, for third world countries don't have these resources to fund even the best intentions of plans.  But, you see, when countries close their doo...

Talk about the roller coaster emotions of adoptions!  This week has been filled with lows then highs then ending off in lows again.  Thanking God that He is stable, faithful, the rock, and a strong tower! Psalm 62:6  "He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken." This week started out with the news of Ethiopia slowing down their referrals of abandoned children with adoptive families.  You can read more here from week 25's post, Child in A Paper Pile. And as you can assume from the title, it is children that ultimately suffer while they are stuck in orphanages with their hope of joining a family on hold while the government pushes papers. Orphanages and adoption agencies are suffering with funds depleting since there are little to no adoptive families making the next payment due when they are matched with children.  The next payment in the adoption process goes to the agency which covers the children's care that is in the ha...

Week 25 Waiting for news just came to a close and here is what we know:     I have to say that I am very frustrated today, yesterday, and well, it's just a bubble of anger that has been brewing since we've heard rumors.  Yesterday the news was confirmed and so this pot is just boiling over.  It happens. Let me give you some background information on the adoption process first.  After our six months of diligently working to get all of our appointments complete, interviews, doctor reviews, papers signed, meetings, notarized letters, State sealed, government approved, etc. etc. our grand 'dossier' (collection of papers and approvals) are complete with the US and are now registered in Ethiopia to be processed there. In Ethiopia the organization that is similar to our Social Services and child protective services is called MOWA.  MOWA stands for Ministry of Women's Affairs and they oversee the care of the children in Ethiopia. They are responsible...