He Has Done GREAT Things!!!

The Vogels have a big announcement!!! We’re having a baby!!!! 

We are due on May 2^nd and couldn’t be more excited!

As many of you know, I’ve battled refractory Hodgkin’s Lymphoma from April of 2012 until I achieved remission from a clinical trial in July 2015. I have had several different types of chemo treatments, radiation, a stem cell transplant, and experimental medicines. The fact that I’m living today is itself an incredible miracle. The fact that God has given us this blessing is completely humbling and utterly overwhelming!

Over the past 4 years the days my heart would hurt and I would cry out to God and tell Him how I longed to hold a child in my arms that was mine were many. But there were also days when I would remember that I had all I ever needed in my Savior and that quieted the doubts in the back of my head.

This baby is a miracle and blessing far beyond anything we deserve. This baby shows me that there is no limit on God’s love for us.

Look at Hannah in 1 Samuel. She was barren for so many years. Her heart was so heavy and her pain was so deep. God saw her in her despair and gave her Samuel. For a barren woman, one child would be everything! One child would be more than enough to satisfy that longing. But God didn’t just give Hannah one child. He went on to bless her FIVE more times! She had five more children after Samuel. God is a giver of good gifts and He desires to bless us beyond what we deserve!

I pray that this child’s life will be nothing but a beacon of hope and a testimony of God’s faithfulness to all who meet him or her. The Lord led me to this passage of scripture in Isaiah about two years ago and it has hung in my home since then.

“I will make rivers flow on barren heights,
    and springs within the valleys.
I will turn the desert into pools of water,
    and the parched ground into springs.
¹⁹ I will put in the desert
    the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.
I will set junipers in the wasteland,
    the fir and the cypress together,
²⁰ so that people may see and know,
    may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
    that the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

~Isaiah 41:18-20

We believe that this little baby is a green shoot in the desert and it was absolutely the hand of God that has done this. Medically speaking it is a miracle that we were able to spontaneously conceive. The amount of chemo my body endured should have taken away any chance of life in my womb. But the Holy One has set this life in motion and we will give Him ALL the glory! There is no denying that God is the one who has done this! What a powerful testimony this little one already has!

Thank you for everyone who has cried out to God on our behalf; first for my healing, and then for a child for us. God hears us when we pray and He brings life from the most dead and barren places. He has truly brought life from death, and we are so thankful!

Dear Baby Vogel,

Your life, little one, is itself a miracle. You are so loved, so special, so wanted, and I can’t wait to meet you!

You have already brought so much joy to us and I pray you would always be a joy-bringer to those you meet. There are so many people that have already prayed for your life and already love you so immensely! I can’t wait to tell you all about the miracle that you are!

Love,

Your mom