2015$ is ALMOST HERE!

Merry Christmas 2014 from the Masse Family (awaiting 1 more)!

The big day has come and gone but we trust that the truth and joy of Christmas will remain with us forever!  This Advent season our family used a new book from Sovereign Grace Ministries called Prepare Him Room.  It was an excellent guide as we set out to focus on the gift of God's Son.  What I didn't know when I ordered it was that the short story included for reading was set in an orphanage!  I've wondered if we are more sensitive to things pertaining to orphans and adoption or has God been placing orphans before us more than ever in preparation for our family's addition? I'm not sure really, but what a joy to see how He continues to prepare our hearts and give us more and greater love for these precious children!

We are just 1 week away from launching 2015$ - Two Thousand Fifteens - our upcoming fundraiser!  Since my last update, our agency received our dossier and sent it off for the authentication process! Due to the holidays it will probably take a bit of extra time for this step, however we can expect to be DTC (dossier to China) in 2-3 weeks!! WOOOOOHOOO!  What a huge step this is! All of our documents have been gathered and once they arrive in China we will be in the waiting phase - waiting for our referral (our match with our daughter), waiting for our letter approval (known as LOA in the adoption world) and then waiting for TA (travel approval).

If you remember from my last post our 2015$ - Two Thousand Fifteens fundraiser will begin on January 1, 2015.  We are praying and asking God to put it on the hearts of 2000 people to donate just $15 to our YouCaring adoption fund! That's HUGE I know, but God is so much bigger than that and we are trusting in His provision!

There's one final aspect of this fundraiser to share - and hopefully this will be fun for lots of YOU!  As a small way of thanking people for donating during this fundraiser we have prizes to give away.   For every 50 donations made we will draw a name from all the donors and that lucky winner will receive an EXCLUSIVE, made-only-for-this-fundraiser, handmade (by me) leather and bead wrap bracelet, aka a Bracelet For One.  I'm apologize there isn't a picture yet, (I'm waiting on the supplies to arrive,) but it's been designed and will be very special and gorgeous!  Think of it, if we receive 2000 donations you would have 40 chances to WIN! :)

Here's a summary:

• Would you be willing to donate $15 toward our adoption on January 1st?  
• Would you be willing to SHARE this event with your friends and acquaintances? Maybe your FB friends, maybe send emails?  If everyone we knew shared it with their circle of friends that would be huge!!
• For every 50 donations made, we will award an exclusive Bracelet For One to a randomly drawn winner!  

Here's a badge you can grab to make sharing easy (simply right click and save the image)!  The more people that know, the better!! Thank you so much for your help - see you next week!

Update for December 17, 2014

Time for another update!  We've gathered all our dossier documents and I was ready to send them off to our agency on Saturday but I ended up waiting . . . no real reason, I just figured we were still waiting on immigration and I hadn't gotten the checks from the bank yet.  Plus we had a crazy weekend!

Fast forward to Monday and when I made my weekly call to USCIS to see if our file had been assigned an officer I was told we had been assigned and  . . . APPROVED!!!  Hooray!! What great news!! It was 36 days from receipt to approval - God is good!!  So that meant we should get the hard copy any day and I better mail those dossier docs to the agency!!  I waited until I had to go to work hoping the mail would come and would include the approval.  No mail by the time I left so I went to the PO and mailed our docs Priority mail (shoot! I should have overnighted them!).  When I got home from work we had gotten the approval in the mail - another praise (but again, why hadn't I overnighted them)!  I emailed that right to our agency, but now they wait for the rest of the documents to arrive.  Once the agency gets our documents they will prepare them and send them off to be authenticated in the state of Alabama, then on to the Houston Consulate and then off to China!  This all should day 2-3 weeks.  Unfortunately it won't make it before the China shutdown from Dec. 28 - January 4, but God has a purpose in all things!

A little update on our upcoming fundraiser - 2015$.  With our dossier finally on the move we are in need of funds to pay the agency fees.  If you look on the our YouCaring website you will see that to date we have raised roughly $8,400 which is amazing!!!  I've made over 150 bracelets, Emma has been making hats, and flowers and owls, etc., we have been given gifts and so much support and we have used some of own funds to get to that amount.  We praise God for all the support we have received and the funds He has provided so far!! In order to submit our dossier (and all the supporting fees) we need about $1800.  We also need to make agency payments totaling around $5000.

I've said this several times, but I think the statistic is something like 90% of people who consider/think about adoption decide not to move forward because of the cost!! I totally get that!! $30,000+ is a huge amount of money!! But from the beginning we have felt that God has called us to adopt a little girl from China and that He would ultimately provide all that was needed!!  It's such a small amount to our great God, really!  So . . .

Please mark your calendars for January 1, 2015 and join us for 2015$ - Two Thousand Fifteens!! We will asking 2000 people to donate $15 on that day.  WOW!! Is that a lot - sure is!! I don't have access to 2000 people all at once! But with YOUR help we definitely do!!

• Would you be willing to donate $15 toward our adoption on January 1st?  
• Maybe for the next 3 weeks you could not get a fancy coffee or a hamburger - put the money in a jar instead and save it for January 1st??   
• Would you be willing to SHARE this event with your friends and acquaintances? Maybe your FB friends, maybe send emails?  If everyone we knew shared it with their circle of friends that would be huge!!

Next week I'll share another aspect of this fundraiser - the FUN part!!! We want to add some fun and give back a bit too as a thank you for your support!

Giving Tuesday - Almost 2015$

On this Giving Tuesday, may I please take a few minutes of your time?  It's been 9 months since we started this process of adoption.  Nine months of waiting, gathering information, endless paperwork and lots of anticipation!  We are getting so close to being able to send our dossier off to China - which means we're getting nearer the end!  The only thing we need is our I800A approval from Immigration.   Then our documents go off to be authenticated and then to China!!  Once our dossier has gone China we will wait (an average of 70-100+ days) for approval (known as a Letter of Approval or LOA) to say that we have been approved by China to adopt.  Then we wait for Travel Approval (or TA) but that's a story for a different time.  We are also getting so close to being matched!  This is the really exciting part my friends!! Just think, before the world began God had a plan for our family, He knew that we would one day be on this adoption journey and He knows the exact little girl who is our daughter!  We cannot wait to meet her - CAN.NOT.WAIT!!

Now that we're seeing some light at the end of the tunnel we are launching our (hopefully) last new fundraiser (doesn't that make you happy?). The high cost of adoption is the number 1 reason interested families do not actually pursue their adoption desires! Number 1!! There are many fees that are coming due for us now, agency fees, dossier fees, fees to have your matched approved, etc.  I believe wholeheartedly that our God is able to do all things and I am so excited to see how He will work!!

The badge here will give you a few hints about what it might be but I'm going to roll it out over the month of December with more details each week.  The big day will be January 1, 2015!

It'll be a fun way to start the New Year - one that doesn't involve dieting, exercise or resolutions - lol!! Just 1 day, 1 goal - to bring our precious daughter home to her family! We can't wait to hold her in our arms and show her just how much she is loved and treasured!  2015 will forever be a special year for our family and we invite you to share in our joy!  Until next time my friends . . . Thank You!