SALE!!!!

 The holidays are just around the corner and we have decided to have a HUGE SALE!!! Our beautiful necklaces have been discounted. Make sure you buy them now, they will only be at this price for a short time.

Our amazing Ethiopian 25cent coin necklaces.

This necklace features an authentic Ethiopian twenty five cent coin set in a silver toned bezel on a braided, genuine leather cord. One side of the coin bears the Lion of Judah symbol, which dates to the visit of Queen Sheba to Solomon (960 b.c.). The other side features a man and woman in a celebratory pose with the numbers 2 & 5 on either side of them.

The leather cord is 18" long and the pendant is approximately 1" in diameter.

Our beautiful fair trade glass beads and silver necklace. So long it can be doubled!

This necklace is made of glass trade beads accented with metal beads from Africa. The Ethiopian flag is green, red, and yellow. I added in the blue after seeing it in so much of the traditional jewelry. Both the metal and glass beads are fair trade. The necklace measure approximately 442” in circumference and can easily be doubled up.
Since these are handmade, no two are alike. 

The necklaces can be shipped immediately and you can order them to the right!

We also still have our ADOPTION shirts. These however would be a presale. I would like to know if there is any interest in these and then we would be happy to order more. We love them and also love that there is no specific country, we are ALL adopted. 

Here are the fabulous shirts:

Men's front

Men's back

Women's front

Women's back

 I also have the woman's shirt in the same color as the men's. The woman's and the men's fit very true to size. Please email me and let me know if there is any interest. masermel@yahoo.com  These shirts would be discounted. They would $23 including shipping!


Thank you all for looking and happy shopping!!!!!!

Our Story.... Part 2

  In January of this year, some families from our church were going on a mission trip to Ethiopia. I wanted to go so bad. I very strongly felt like the Lord wanted me to go, but I was not able to. I committed to praying for them every single day til they got back. Not a quick prayer, but a true on my knees, had to make time for it, kind of prayer. What I didn't know was that God had other plans for my prayer time, He was breaking my heart for Africa. I had never felt this way before, every single time I prayed, I cried. It felt like I was there with them, feeling what they felt, seeing what they saw. I had no idea what they were doing and I hadn't even seen any pictures. But God is bigger then that and that 10 days of prayer changed my life forever. I loved Ethiopia, without even having to step foot there. My heart was there and I just knew God was calling us there.

  Hubby would go around seeing babies and saying "look honey." and he would constantly talk about wanting me to have another baby. He said when I'm ready we could try again. I finally had to tell him to stop showing me babies. I know it was not his intention, but I felt like I could not give him what his heart desired. as a wife it killed me. I told hubby that I believe we are meant to adopt right now, He said he didn't feel the same way, but that he would continue to pray about it.

  My heart would not stop aching for Ethiopia and God kept telling me to be patient. I even started this blog knowing in my heart that we would be adopting one day.

  In February of this year we went on our first real family vacation to the Smokey Mountains. It was incredible, God had His hand in all of it. It snowed the whole time we were there (none of us had ever really seen it) and we got to go sledding. It was just amazing. The best part was as a family we got to spend time with Jesus with absolutely NO distractions. Hubby and I even got to journal a lot. We had time to talk and reflect on everything. He even brought up adoption and told me that he wanted to, but couldn't get the idea of a brand new infant out of his head. He said that God would have to take away that desire and wasn't sure if He would. I didn't want to adopt if my hubby was not broken for it. We needed to be in this together, so I told him I would wait and I knew with all my heart that God would take away that desire and replace it with a better one.

  We never really talked about it again. We prayed about it all the time, but I didn't bring it up anymore. I didn't want to be the one to influence his decision. I wanted it to be all from God.

 Towards the end of March, we got home from Church (we go at night) and put the kids in bed. We were getting ready to watch a movie. I was making coffee and hubby comes into the kitchen with a serious look on his face. I thought something was wrong. He told me (and I will never forget) that He was disobeying the Lord, that He could no longer deny what God was asking us to do. That we had a child in Ethiopia that was meant to be a Maser and he was ready to start the journey to get our son. I balled like a baby.

 Hubby's heart has changed so much since that day that he is all ready planning on going back to get our daughter. He even feels that the Lord is going to move us their permanently. Love how God works.

 We told our kids the next morning and they were beyond thrilled.  Ever since that day, they have been praying every night for their brother.

Our journey started out with us wanting to add to our family, but it has turned into so much more. Our eyes have been opened to the orphan crisis in a way that it never was before. Our hearts are broken for a country that we have never stepped foot in. We have put our faith in the Lord to provide and bring our little man home in a way that we never did with our pregnancies. We feel so blessed and honored that we get to be this little boys parents.

 It's funny how when you go through such pain you can't see how one day you will be grateful for it. I can honestly say that I am. I am thankful that I have three precious babies with Jesus, I am grateful that in my most painful moments I never lost sight of the one who had something so much bigger planned for our family. I am thankful that one day soon, we will step foot in a country that has our heart and we will hold our precious boy. I am thankful that as a family we all got to experience the hurt, but more importantly we all get to experience His joy.

Our story... Part 1

 Sunday November 7 is Orphan Sunday, as I have been reflecting on our journey so far I realized that I never really shared on our blog, how the Lord directed our family towards adoption.It's very personal, but the Lord says it's time to share.  Forgive me, I am not very good at blogging. :)



    When Jon and I first got married I asked him if he would ever consider adoption. He said yes and didn't care what race. I wanted to be a mom so bad and I wanted to make sure that he wouldn't care if I didn't have them. We never really talked about it again.

   We have known so many people that have adopted, we have always supported them, but never felt led ourselves. I actually had it on my heart to be a foster mom and if I was called to adopt through that then I would. My grandma was a foster mother and so was my sister. I believe to my core that if we could share the love of Christ with the kids that were put in our home, no matter how long they were here, then it would remain with them forever. Hubby agreed, but the Lord never gave us the green light to move forward.

  Over a year and a half ago, hubby had it on his heart to add to our family. So we started to try. During that time, two of our good friends put in applications to adopt. We had them over for dinner one night and they were jokingly saying "Now it's your turn." We both loved adoption,  I felt like God was telling me that He would be leading our family to this, but My hubby felt like God was leading us to something different. So we prayed about it and decided that now was not the time and we would just support our friends through prayer and whatever else we could.

  When I finally got pregnant we were so happy, but  I lost the baby a week later. I ended up getting pregnant again right away. I was scared. I thought it was to soon and I didn't want to have another miscarriage. God kept telling me this time was going to be different. Boy, was He right! I started bleeding around 7 weeks. I just knew... The doctors kept doing ultrasounds and the baby was fine and even growing. They kept telling me that even though I was bleeding it would be fine. I was trying to trust, but I just knew. At 10 weeks on a Monday I went in for an ultrasound and the baby had died. They wanted to do a DandC but I couldn't. Not that I think it's wrong, I just didn't want to have surgery. I went home and just cried. Then all of a sudden the pain came and I had the baby at home. I want to make this very clear for those that are for abortion. This was not some cells or whatever you want to call it. This was a baby. A smaller version then what most people deliver, but he has a face, hands, nail, eyes, heart, legs, everything. .... We went back to the doctors and as soon as we got to the parking lot I started to Hemorrage. It got so bad that I had to be rushed to the hospital to have the surgery that I never wanted. The nurse was there and she started crying over me as I was laying there and she began to pray and pray.  I feel to this day that she must have been an angel ( even though by doing that, it scared my hubby) I never saw her again.

  I remember waking up from the surgery and I said to another nurse who was there that I was blessed because I had two babies in heaven. She looked at me like I was crazy and I just kind of  went numb. The next couple of days after all this happened was really hard. I wanted to mourn, but wouldn't allow myself. I kept feeling that Jesus is enough and if I believed that then I wouldn't let it destroy me. The Lord gave me a verse that to this day is one of  my favorites. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."  2Corinthians 12:9-10  He also told me that it was okay to mourn and that He wanted me to and that He would be right there with me mourning as well. With all my pain, and broken heart I still felt peace from the Lord. I needed Jesus, He was the only one that could bring me the peace and comfort that I needed. So I laid in bed for two days crying off and on and reading the bible and praying, praying and praying. I would also like to point out that I never had to share this burden alone. My hubby was perfect and we also had amazing  people who took great care of us and prayed for us. We felt them and we needed them.

 We buried our little one ( we believe he was a boy) in our yard and planted a butterfly garden.Our kids didn't know that our baby was buried there, but they knew it was in memory of our baby who is now with Jesus. 
The hospital wanted us to "turn him in" so they could try to see what went wrong. But that was my child, we could not do that, plus we didn't need to know what went wrong. We know that if God wanted us to raise that little baby here on earth then we would have. 

 I ended up getting pregnant again. I know what you must be thinking,.trust me, we were thinking it as well.  We were actually preventing that from happening. The doctors said that it still can happen anyway because your hormones are all messed up and highly fertile. Wish they would have told us that sooner. We didn't tell anybody and we lost that baby as well. We were probably about 6 weeks. Doctors said that we never would have known if we wouldn't have gone to the doctors. Still, it killed me. I was so angry that this kept happening, I couldn't understand why I had four babies, yet I couldn't have anymore. I couldn't understand why God would put something so strongly on our hearts and not give it to us. I cried out to the Lord and begged Him not to let me go through his anymore. I begged Him to help me trust in His promises and His will for my life. Crazy thing was, is that I did trust Him and I knew that He had something so much bigger then we ever thought.

This is when hubby was making the butterfly garden.

This is it now. The Lord has blessed it. We kill everything.

Since people say not to go long on blogs, I will write more later.......To be continued.........

And the winner is.........

This is going to be short and to the point. I just got home and we drew the winner, but before I annouce it, I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Our puzzle is finally starting to look like a puzzle.:D I can not wait for the day we bring our little prince home and he sees all the people that have prayed for him and who have helped us get him here. Thank you!! Thank you!!

I still need to add three more pieces, I had a late entry.

 

 
                  Now for the winner of the ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SMACKERS :)

 I had my hubby draw a random name and you will just have to watch to see who won!.

I will say this much. God knew who was going to win, because this person I have never even met and she has done nothing but encourage us, pray for us, and has even had yard sales in our honor. She is an amazing women of Jesus and I hope one day she will come to Florida so I can give her a bug hug!  Love you friend. Enjoy your blessing :) P.S. Send me your address.


Again I just want to thank you all so much. You can always purchase puzzle pieces. We still have a lot to complete and we are also still selling necklaces. We are getting so close to our boy and I know the Lord will provide!

Time is running out!!!

I will be drawing the name (it will be video taped) THIS Thursday October 28th!!!


To see how to enter, check out this post HERE

 Remember with each puzzle piece that you purchase, you will not only have your name permanently on the back for our son to see, BUT you will also be helping us raise our referral fee. For those of you that don't know what that is. When we get our referral that tells us who our son is, we will have seven days to pay the fee which is $8300.  You will not only be helping us in a HUGE way but you will also get the chance to win $150.00!!!!!

Thank you so much to all those who have entered! You have blessed us more then you know.

TIME IS RUNNING OUT!! ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY BEFORE IT ENDS!!!!!

If you do not want to use paypal, please email me, masermel@yahoo.com and I can send you my address :)

Waiting list and GIVEAWAY!!!!

I am overjoyed right now!!! We just got the email that we are officially on the waiting list to get our son. Oh I just love writing that. We are #47!!!!  I love how God works. I was at co-op all morning and hubby has been working. I have been checking my phone just waiting to get an email. But secretly I wanted to get it when hubby and I were together. When I got home, hubby was on lunch break, we were all together and guess what!?! We got the email. Seriously, God rocks!

To celebrate we are going to do a giveaway of $150.00!!! Yes, that is right. I was going to do an IPOD, but then thought why not just the cash. You can go Christmas shopping, go on a mini vacation, use it towards your adoption, or put it right back into ours ;).... Whatever you want to do with it, it is yours. Before I tell you how to enter, let me show you something.

This is a picture of our puzzle so far and it kinda makes me sad. You can "sponsor" a puzzle piece and you or your families name will be written on the back permanently. Then when it is complete, we will put it in a double sided glass so that our little one can see all the names of everyone who helped. :)

Now let me tell you how to enter.

$10 to "sponsor" 1 puzzle piece- 1 entry

$25 to "sponsor" 3 puzzle pieces- 3 entries

AFTER you have "sponsored" a piece, you will get another entry for putting it on your FaceBook AND another entry for putting it on your blog.

That is a lot of entries.

Just click on our Donate button and enter the amount you would like and the name you would like on the puzzle. For those of you who do not want to use PayPal, just email me at masermel@yahoo.com and I can give you an address.


Thank you all so much. Please celebrate with us. And  GOOD LUCK!

I can't believe it...

    We had the hardest time getting our dossier submitted.  The  Lord brought us the money, but our paper work had a few issues. It was so frustrating, because you look over that paper work a million times making sure that everything is perfect and somehow  I still missed mistakes . The most frustrating part was that we were going to be delayed by two weeks to get on the waiting list AND we spent well over $100 dollars on shipping that should have never been spent.  I know that it's Gods timing and I am also very thankful that we were able to see and correct the problems now, it would have been so much more time consuming and costly to have it mess  up later.

This is a Dossier. Your blood , sweat and tears, many tears!

We finally got all of them Authenticated.

Blue bow, for our little man!

Shipped out! We are coming for you baby boy! One step closer <3

Today I received an email saying that everything is perfect and we should be on the waiting list in  about a week and a half. EEEEKKKK!!! I am beyond excited.  We also have uped our age request. It was 0-15 months, but now it will be 0-21 months. We are thrilled and can not wait to hold our little man.


Here is some more exciting news. Once we get the email that we are officially on the waiting list we are going to have a huge celebration by giving away COLD HARD CASH!!! Yes, you read that right. You might want to be following my blog to find out when it will happen and how you can enter!!!


Thank you Jesus!!