Quilt "Giveaway"!!

If you haven't already seen on Facebook we now have our I800a (immigration) approval and can move forward with sending our Dossier to China as soon as that has been notarized and authenticated. We are hoping to be DTC by the end of next week (or close to it!).

In order to send our dossier though, we have some bills to pay.  Originally we needed $6000 for all the bills and expenses, but God is good, and through fundraisers, grants and donations that number is down to $2400!! But it gets better!  Since we have a matching grant through Second Best Ministries and Chosen and Dearly Loved (both through Lifesong for Orphans), we only need $1200!  Amazing right??  I love knowing that every single dollar given through them goes twice as far - what a blessing!

So it's time for a brand new fundraiser!  We have 2 beautiful quilts to "giveaway" for donations.  These are both hand made and absolutely heirloom quality!  

Quilt 1 is a Queen sized quilt with a nice neutral soft print on the back.  It's quilted in a gorgeous design and ready to grace any bedroom!

Quilt 2 is a bright, pretty wall hanging or small lap quilt.  It's also hand made and quilted beautifully!

Here's how to enter :

Make a donation for entries as follows:
1. 1 entry for $5
2. 3 entries for $10
3. 10 entries for $25

Donations can be made to: https://mystory.lifesongfororphans.org/…/masse-china-adopt…/

When donating PLEASE specify which quilt you are entering to win - the Queen or the Wall quilt!  We will have this open until June 30th when we draw the winners!! ❤

❤️

GIVEAWAY!!

TULA TODDLER CARRIER GIVEAWAY! We were given this beautiful, barely used Tula Toddler Carrier by a sweet China mom friend to use as a fundraiser for our current adoption! So here we go!
Make a donation for entries as follows:

1. 1 entry for $5
2. 3 entries for $10
3. 10 entries for $25

Donations can be made to:https://mystory.lifesongfororphans.org/…/masse-china-adopt…/

We will draw a winner in 2 weeks, on May 27th!

The Lucky Few

A few days ago I mentioned that I was working on some new projects to help us get to Tessa as quickly as possible, well it's time to share!  We have been blessed by your loving comments and really such warm acceptance of our newest beautiful girl.  God as truly blessed our family by allowing us to be a part of her story and we cannot wait to have her home with us!

Our Tessa

If you frequent any social media you know that yesterday, 3-21 was World Down's Syndrome Day, a day to celebrate all those special people all over the world living with an extra chromosome!  I saw so many wonderful stories, posts, pictures and videos featuring babies, children, toddlers, teens and adults with Down's Syndrome.  We are fairly new to this world and have SO much to learn but we are confident that with lots of support, prayers and love from BTDT (been there, done that) friends and family God will bless.

Will you join with us as we take this next step in following God's call for our family, will you pray for us and Tessa as we wait these months before we are united?  Will you help us in this next fundraiser, buy a few tshirts, give them to friends, wear them proudly declaring that love does not discriminate, and share the fundraiser with your circle of friends?  Love always wins and we are indeed #theluckyfew!  These are super soft Canvas brand tshirts, my favorite brand since they are so comfy!

So, here they are, The Lucky Few

Some details:

1.  What color shirts do you have?  We are offering these tshirts in 4 different colors, White, Black, Turquoise and Heather Red.  As you can see from the graphics, the Turquoise and Red tshirts have a 2 color graphic, the White and black have a 3 color graphic.

2.  Do you have women's fit? Right now we are only offering unisex sizing, if we have enough interest, we would consider adding a women's fit tee.

3.  Do you have Toddler/Youth Sizes? Yes!  We have Toddler sizes 2T-4T available in the black and white only.  We also have Youth sizes XS-XL in black and white only.  Don't forget all those little people who are great at spreading the message! :)

4.  How do you order?  Fill in THIS ORDER FORM, with some pertinent details.  Once you submit the form, you will be sent to the confirmation page where there is a link to submit payment.

5.  What is the cost?  Tshirts are $20, with $5 flat rate shipping no matter how many you order!

6.  When does it end?  We are hoping to place our first order by April 16.  Once we place the order, they will be shipped to us within 10 days and go out to you as soon as possible!

7.  Can I make a donation even if I don't want a tshirt?  Yes! Either visit our YouCaring page or our family page on Reece's Rainbow and thank you!


Thank you for helping us along in this journey to Tessa!  We pray that God will bless you for caring for one who will soon be an orphan no more!

Another Way to Give

I'm excited to let you know that we now have an FSP (Family Sponsorship Program) page on Reece's Rainbow! If you are not familiar with RR and the great work they do, here is a bit about them from the RR website:

The mission of Reece’s Rainbow is to advocate and find families for orphans with Down syndrome and other special needs by raising funds for adoption grants and promoting awareness through an online community, media communications, and other events.

Our page on RR is just another way people can make donations toward our adoption fund, but unlike YouCaring, all donations are completely tax deductible!

Please use this link to find our page and feel free to share it - especially today on WORLD DOWN SYNDROME DAY!

Go to Tessa for the Masse family to see our page (I'll also be adding a link to the sidebar)!  Thank you!

Miriam Scavenger Hunt!

I'm so excited to be a part of this scavenger hunt blog hop in celebration of the launch of Mesu Andrews' second book in her Treasures of the Nile series, Miriam!  (This post is long, but be sure to read all the way to the end to see how you can win a copy of both books!)

I realize most of you are probably already "on the hunt", but if you just happened on this page first, you'll want to hop on over to the start of the hunt at Mesu’s blog and then you'll finish your journey at Mommynificent.com. At the bottom of this post, you can find the full list of stops for the entire hunt. Between March 15th and 20th, click on the next link, head over to the page, meet a new book-lover, and read their thoughts about Miriam. Somewhere in each post there will be a single word that is in BOLD AND ALL CAPITALS. Write it down. (The words “Home” and “Good Luck” are not secret words for anyone.)

Then, go to the next stop. That post will also have a word that’s bolded and capitalized. You will need to visit all 14 blogs as each one will have a word that you need. Once you reach the end and have found all the words, you will have found an inspirational quote from the book Miriam. There are 14 words in this quote. Enter the quote into the Rafflecopter on the last stop and you will be entered to win a Kindle Fire from Mesu Andrews! (Open to U.S. residents only) If you have any questions, get lost, or experience any technical difficulties, you may email Tina at tina{at}mommynificent{dot}com for help. Now, let's talk about this fantastic book!

About the Book

Title: Miriam

Author: Mesu Andrews

Series: Treasures of the Nile, Book 2

Publication Date: March 15, 2016

Publisher: WaterBrook Press

Print Length: 384 pages

Summary from the publisher: At eighty-six, Miriam had devoted her entire life to loving El Shaddai and serving His people as both midwife and messenger. Yet when her brother Moses returns to Egypt from exile, he brings a disruptive message. God has a new name – Yahweh – and has declared a radical deliverance for the Israelites.

Miriam and her beloved family face an impossible choice: cling to familiar bondage or embrace uncharted freedom at an unimaginable cost. Even if the Hebrews survive the plagues set to turn the Nile to blood and unleash a maelstrom of frogs and locusts, can they weather the resulting fury of the Pharaoh? Enter an exotic land where a cruel Pharaoh reigns, pagan priests wield black arts, and the Israelites cry out to a God they only think they know.

My Thoughts about Miriam by Mesu Andrews

This is the eagerly awaiting sequel to The Pharoah's Daughter by Mesu Andrews! If you read and enjoyed The Pharoah's Daughter, I promise you will not be disappointed. If you haven't read it don't worry, it's not necessary to your understanding and enjoyment of Miriam (but you definitely will want to read it!).

As a long-time lover of Biblical fiction and Mesu Andrew's books I could not wait to read this one. Miriam takes up the story of the prophetess of Israel, the brother of Moses when she is 86 year old. As only Mesu can do, I was immersed in the culture of the Hebrew people long enslaved in the cruel, polytheistic culture of ancient Egypt. I loved catching up with old familiar characters from The Pharoah's Daughter as well as meeting new ones. The characters and descriptions of landscapes, buildings and scenes are superb - one of Mesu's many talents!

As Moses returns bringing news of deliverance we begin to see the turmoil this news introduces into the hearts of God's people. Should they believe in this God who has been silent for so long, who has revealed a new name, Yahweh, and who many have long turned from? Should they trust Moses who has been gone from Egypt for so long and who many still view as part of Pharoah's family? All these questions and more surprisingly creep into even Miram's heart.

The story takes us through the plagues one by one and lead us to the eventual deliverance of Yahweh's people. Along the way, we experience many emotions along with Miriam. She desperately wants to feel the old familiar closeness with her El Shaddai, she struggles with doubt, fear, trust, love and must chose repeatedly to follow Yahweh even though she DOES not have all of her questions answered.

I love this quote when Miriam is questioning one of Moses's directives. He gently reminds her "Obey, Miriam. We must all obey in order to reap the promises of the God who loves us." So true! This is one of those books that you really don't want to end! The twist and turns of the story keep you reading "just one more chapter". Each event, each character, each storyline blend together to create one of Mesu's finest books yet (I have read them all, and I could never say which is my favorite, but they do seem to get better and better!). I was inspired by the faith of these Biblical heros, chosing to follow Yahweh even when they are afraid or don't understand His ways. Each of Mesu's books are so full of Biblical truth and application and that's especially true with Miriam.

Read it for yourself and experience this "treasure" of Biblical fiction!

Discloser:  I received this book from Waterbook Press, a division of Penguin Random House, in exchange for an honest review.

About The Author

Mesu Andrews is the award-winning author of Love Amid the Ashes, Love's Sacred Song, Love in a Broken Vessel, In the Shadow of Jezebel, as well as two books in her Treasures of the Nile series: The Pharoah's Daughter and Miriam. Winner of the 2012 ECPA Christian Book Award for New Author, she has devoted herself to passionate and intense study of Scripture, bringing the biblical world vividly alive for her readers. She lives in Washington.

Mesu's Website * Facebook * Twitter * Goodreads

Stops on the Scavenger Hunt

1. Mesu Andrews
2. A Holland Reads
3. Mother of Three
4. Just A Second
5. Grace and Glory
6. Angela Arndt - Joy on the Back Roads
7. God's Peculiar Treasure Rae
8. What If
9. Carole Towriss
10. Kate Hodges, Storyteller
11. Backing Books
12. Creative Madness Mama - This blog is not working right now. :( The keyword for this one is WHO. Sorry for any inconvenience.
13. Climbing to the High Calling
14. Mommynificent

Win Both Treasure of the Nile Books

WaterBrook Press has given me permission to give away one copy of each of Mesu's Treasures of the Nile novels to one lucky winner so to enter to win your own copies of both The Pharoah's Daughter and Miriam, all you have to do is leave a comment below. (Open to U.S. residents only.)

Introducing . . .

Finally! I can share the news we've been waiting for share for what seems like forever! On Friday, March 4 (although we didn't receive word of it until Monday, March 7) we received Pre-Approval from China, granting us permission to move forward with the adoption of our newest family member, Tessa!

Isn't she adorable?!  She is 2 years old but by the time we travel to get her she will be about the same age as Lila was when we were first met her.  She has Down's Syndrome.  She lives in a province just a little north of where Lila was living so we will get to see a different part of China for the first week of our trip. 

Some of you may be interested in how we actually got to this point, I know some may remember that when we started this second adoption we talked about adopting an aging out girl, a girl who was 13.  When we first decided to pursue a second adoption we fell in love with a sweet girl on our agency's list.  Her file was very outdated but showed a beautiful girl who was 13 and who had unrepaired club feet.  As some may know, our youngest son was born with bilateral club feet so this was always a sn that caught our attention.  We requested an update and received wonderful answers to our questions!  We also were put in contact with a woman who runs a foundation in this same orphanage, who had traveled to China in June and had met this girl.  She provided us with more pictures and video and the confirmation that she was a sweet, loving girl!  We had several discussions with our placing agency and decided to move forward and bring this girl home.

But God's plans are not always our plans.  After contacting our homestudy agency here at home to begin updating our homestudy, we were told that they would most likely not approve us for an aging out girl and that they had a policy that there must be 1 year between adoptions.  To make a VERY long story short, we tried everything in our power for several months to make this work, we appealed, and appealed again and again and again, we called all the other agencies in our state, we waited countless times for someone to "take a look" and get back to us. The answer was always the same, no.  In the end we had to acknowledge that God had a different plan for our family and for this dear girl!  Please pray that in the few short months she has left a family will step forward and adopt her!

So in mid December we finally began working on our homestudy update which was completed at the end of February.  During those few months we prayed about who God would have us adopt, the needs are so overwhelming sometimes it seemed impossible to know which way to turn.  We also decided during this time on a name for our new daughter, we hadn't seen her yet, but we decided we were going to name her Tessa.  Then one day, our case worker texted me and asked if I had looked at "Tessa" on one of their special focus lists?  Well, no I hadn't really, and her name is Tessa?  Now, it's only the American name that the agency gives her to make advocacy easier, but still . . .

We looked at her file and decided to request an update and some new pictures and video.  The update didn't take very long but due to Chinese New Year we waited several weeks for a video, something we really felt was important to view before moving forward.  The day that video came, we knew, Tessa was ours!  Joyfully, we submitted our Letter of Intention requesting that China pre-approve us to adopt this beautiful child and on March 4, they said yes!

We are now ready to file our I800a paperwork with Immigration.  Once that approval is received we will be able to send our dossier to China and begin the final wait for a Letter of Approval. If all goes well, we hope to travel late Summer/early Fall to bring Tessa home.

The immediate need we have now is for the funds needed to file our immigration paperwork, approximately $2000.  Once this done, we will need another large sum in order to submit our dossier, about $4000.  We have been busy applying for grants and doing lots of fundraisers, however we are still quite a ways off.  Would consider partnering with us to bring Tessa home? We are so grateful for each donation! Donations can be made using our YouCaring page or via Paypal (www dot jjmasse @ sacoriver dot net - please use the Friends option).

Thanks for sticking with me on this long post.  We are so excited and humbled to see how God has worked and provided so far and are eagerly looking forward to "the rest of the story!"  

Let's Talk Books!

I have the privilege of being a part of the launch team for Mesu Andrews' newest book, Miriam, the second installment in her Treasures of the Nile series. Several of us on the team decided to get together and have a scavenger hunt and giveaway to celebrate the book's release. We want to invite you to be a part of the fun next week!

From 1am Eastern (US) time on March 15th, the book's release date, until 11:59pm on March 20th, there will be a scavenger hunt with stops on 14 different blogs! You'll start at Mesu's blog and finish your journey at Mommynificent.com. At the end of each post, you’ll find links to all of the stops in the hunt. Between March 15th and 20th, click on the next link, head over to the page, meet a new book-lover, and read their thoughts about this fantastic book. Somewhere in each post there will be a single word that is in BOLD AND ALL CAPITALS. Write it down. (The words "Home" and "Good Luck" are not secret words for anyone.) Then, go to the next stop. That post will also have a word that’s bolded and capitalized.

You will need to visit all 14 blogs as each one will have a word that you need. Once you reach the end and have found all the words, you will have found an inspirational quote from the book Miriam. There are 14 words in this quote. Enter the quote into the Rafflecopter on the last stop and you will be entered to win a Kindle Fire from Mesu Andrews! In addition, each blogger will be running their own giveaway of a set of paperbacks of Mesu's two Treasures of the Nile books - The Pharaoh's Daughter and Miriam!