"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Proverbs 16:9

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

2 Months DTE!




Today we celebrated our two-month DTE anniversary! We have officially been on the waiting list for a baby boy for two months now. We started at #18 on the "unofficial" wait list (kept by our agency's Yahoo support group) and at our one-month DTE anniversary, we were #16. As of today, we are now #9... plus five of the families ahead of us recently received their "On Deck" e-mails letting them know that they could expect a referral soon! We have been so excited to see such wonderful movement in the adoption world over the last few weeks. Its such a blessing to see God's hand at work uniting these forever families, and we truly can't wait until its our turn! We know God has a very special boy waiting for us, and we are so anxious to see who he is!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Are you able to help?


The Bible tells us in Psalm 82:3 to "Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed." This Father's Day weekend, we are hoping that you can help us do just that!

While we are in Ethiopia, we are planning to visit not only the Transition Home run by our adoption agency, but also several orphanages and care centers (for older, school-aged children). We are hoping to be able to bless each of these facilities with some much-needed donations. Will you help us show Christ's love to these precious children halfway around the world who need so much and yet have so very little?

We will be having a HUGE yard sale on June 18 and 19 to raise money to purchase donations and to pay the airline fees for taking the donations over with us.

Here are 3 ways you can join with us to help "defend the cause of the weak and fatherless."

1. Donate items for us to sell at the yard sale. We would be happy to come and pick them up from you.
2. Come and SHOP!! Friday, June 18 and Saturday, June 19 from 8:00 - 3:00.
3. Purchase donations for the transition homes, orphanages, and care centers. Please see the list below:
  • Small toys, bubbles, balloons (no stuffed animals)
  • Playdough, puppets
  • Twin bed sheets
  • Baby Formula (powder with DHA/RHA)
  • Diapers (all sizes)
  • Baby Wipes
  • Clothes for older children (age 7 and up) including day clothes, pajamas, and underwear
  • Shoes (Crocs, sandals)
  • Vitamins (Poly-vi-sol, Tri-vi-sol, chewable multi-vitamins)
  • Iron supplements
  • Tylenol (infants and children's)
  • Hand sanitizer
  • Toothbrushes, toothpaste, and floss
  • Diaper rash cream, Neosporin, cough syrup, saline spray
  • Granola bars, suckers, etc for handing out to the children
  • School supplies (notebooks, pencils, etc)
God is really stirring in our hearts to not just help the child we are adopting, but also the millions of orphans in Ethiopia who will be left behind. Thank you for joining with us!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

A Beautiful Story


This family's story is so similar to our own (although they used a different adoption agency). Their journey helps put so many of our own thoughts and feelings into words, and helps to answer the questions, "Why adoption? Why Ethiopia?". Its a beautiful story, and I hope you'll take a few minutes to watch it. You may need the tissues handy!


Evyn's Gotcha Day + Adoption story from emily Vogeltanz on Vimeo.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Does it make you think?


I recently came across this thought-provoking quote...

"If only 7 percent of the 2 billion Christians in the world would care for a single orphan in distress, there would effectively be no more orphans."

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Cool Find...



My parents rarely drink any pop that isn't diet; which may explain why I found this old can of Coke in their refrigerator this afternoon. It was from a series Coke did celebrating the 2008 Olympics. Can you see what it says? How cool is that?!? (And no, we didn't drink it... just in case you were wondering!) :)