Another Way to Help...

I hope that you've all gotten your orders in for t-shirts!! 

If t-shirts aren't your thing, or you would just like another way to help out, check out the Masse family's other current fundraiser....

Waterbottles!

The beautiful pink bottles are $16 each (not including shipping) - here is the link with details:  (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScl5pSd5Y11wUEhaAyETzk-L79ybbRcqbvBGq3y1CAhVySe9w/viewform?c=0&w=1) 

They also have a few of these larger red ones:

(If you're interested in those, please comment and I'll let you know if they are still available!)   


Thank you so much for supporting this wonderful family's journey to their daughter! 

Do You Remember....

The Masse family? 

Their family has been such a blessing through our journey! They have prayed, supported, and helped and helped to fundraise (special thank you post coming soon)! 


This past June, their house was lost in a fire.  Thankfully, everyone was safe, but they lost the majority of their treasured possessions and their home must be rebuilt AND...

they are in the process of bringing home their newest little one, beautiful Tessa (picture here: http://reecesrainbow.org/?s=tessa), and are currently waiting for LOA from China! 

Now, we would like to help them bring Tessa home!!!

The Masses designed these beautiful T-Shirts which are so appropriate for this journey and something to remember every day. 

The prices for these super soft shirts are between $20 and $25 (depending on the style), with a flat shipping fee of $5 for every order.

This is the link to order your T-shirts - check it out and find your favorite style and color!  You can do SO much!!!   

https://goo.gl/forms/Vdv5WwJfH3zhX3ng2

They are taking orders for roughly 2 more weeks. 

Please let me know if you have any trouble! 

Thank you so much for helping to get this incredible family to their incredible daughter! 

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Hello again!

Hi there!
We're back, sorry it took so long... we have been having a hectic time of learning English, French,  and Brittish... (For example: table, palmier, barmy, and more!)
And yes, my new name is "Barmy Kellin".

We have been having a great time, with lots of new friends, ("So many friends!" as Kassi says...) lots of new food, ("Why do you Americans eat so many meals?"as Kassi says...) and a new country.

We also spent some time at the beach, which was a lot of fun, seeing as she had never seen a beach before. 

(We are back again for this weekend, so we will have more pictures soon!)

She was quite exited to see the ocean, but did not believe us when we told her that it was salty. 

Until she tasted it!

She also didn't believe us when we told her that the new monarch caterpillars that just hatched on our Milkweed would turn into butterflies. But now they are almost ready to change, and she is getting more exited every day.

One last thing, 
I would like to extend a special thank you to all of our wonderful friends who have made delicious meals for us and made our lives that much easier.
Thank you!!

Oh! I almost forgot to tell you about Kassi's favorite book!
It is 112 pages long, is a chapter book, and she has no idea what it is about, but she says repeatedly that it is her "most favorite" ever.

Whatever floats your boat!

We'll be back later with another update and some new fundraisers...not for us this time!

The First Week Home...

Hi there, everyone! 

We are so sorry about the delay in posting....we have been having a hectic (and amazing!) time of discovering America and getting over jet lag.  We have met new friends, gone new places, and had "a LOT of food" (Kassi's words, not mine)! 

Including those milkshakes we mentioned!

And here is another, better picture of the "Airport Fort"

Since we got home, we have been swamped in a stew of jet-lag, mixed with the invigorating feeling of finally, finally having your family together.

It was so nice to have a special dinner on our first night with 9-braid bread...

...and a beautiful fruit tart made by some sweet friends! 

The next day, we visited the "huge store"...that was a big hit and Kassi has now experienced it twice (once in PJ's!)!! 

Of course, our "huge store" has nothing on the eight story malls they have in China, although she hadn't seen many...

Kassi is beginning to learn to cook! Our Mawmaw wasn't feeling very well, so we made her some pumpkin muffins and carrot soup! 

We ate a couple (dozen) ourselves, as well...😉

She is learning to cut safely - without fingers under the knife! 

Puzzles are also a great source of fascination (she had never seen one before)!  From 24 piece ones...

To 550! (We all worked on the big one together) 

So long for now! We are having fun as a family and loving it!!! 

We'll be back soon with more pictures...

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HOME at Last!!!!!!

And....we are FINALLY here! After nearly 48 hours of airports and planes, we are home sweet home. 

We were met by many sweet friends at the airport (complete with balloons, flowers, and a welcome sign), which in Kassi's words was the "best ever!!!!!" A huge 'thank you' to all of you - it absolutely made her day!!!

From there, we headed home! As soon as we walked in the door, Kassi's jaw dropped. She was completely speechless! She has discovered her bedroom (with her OWN bed!), the kitchen, and all of the other many rooms in the house! 

We had a snack, took showers, and we are heading in to dinner now!

We are so incredibly happy to be home and to see the whole family all together! 

We had to take pictures on Kellin's camera, so I will post them later, but for now we are too exhausted to do much other than stay awake until 6:00 p.m. or so! 

We will be catching up on some of the blogging that we couldn't do in country very soon! 

Miami... and schedule

Hello all!! We don't have very long in Miami, but we wanted to let everyone know the flight information. We will be coming into the Tallahassee airport at 11:16 a.m. (if everything goes on schedule), on American Airlines flight 3286. We are so excited to be HOME!!!!!

Being a Cogan

Kassi is just starting to learn about her new family and the crazy things that we do! She had the perfect opportunity to see that we can 'make do' with whatever situation happens to come along when we were rescheduled onto a different flight than we were planning.

 Since it was so late by the time we knew what we would be doing, and our flight leaves at 5:30 this morning (Dallas time), we decided to catch a few hours of sleep at our gate instead of trying to get to a hotel. 

However, the gate didn't have much....pizzaz.

So we decided to add some!  

Then, instead of having to sleep awkwardly on the chairs, or on the bare floor, we pulled out our handy silks and made a house!


How cool are we? 😊

It had two rooms, walls, a ceiling, and a music system. So, while everyone else slept fitfully, we rested well and were up in perfect condition. Okay, well, it would have been better if we had gotten more than 3 hours of sleep, but still! 

Kassi also had her first meal in America!! She has decided that she REALLY likes vanilla milkshakes!! 

Adding pictures later....we have to board!

The Long Road Home

Hello friends!! 
We will be going "back in time" and filling in the story of our trip, but for now, we are heading HOME!!!!! We tried to post in the airport there, but the internet just didn't work. 

We left Guangzhou early yesterday morning (China time), and flew to Beijing. After that was the LOOOOONG flight from Beijing to Dallas, TX! 12 1/2 hours on a plane! Kassi did wonderfully, and she says that flying on airplanes is the most fun ever! 

We were scheduled to leave Dallas for Tallahassee 1 1/2 hours after we arrived. Unfortunately, we had to complete Kassi's immigration paperwork; claim our checked bags; go through customs; re-check our bags; and go through security again before finally making our way to the gate. This....didn't happen. So, we missed our flight (although they re-booked us because they shouldn't have cut it so close), and we will have to leave early tomorrow morning (Dallas time). 

We did have the wonderful opportunity for Kassi to meet her "Grandma Cogan" while we were here, though!! Since she lives only an hour's flight away, she flew in to meet us in Dallas. She was able to give Kassi her birthday gifts and spend a little time with us, and she is headed home later tonight. 

The moment that Kassi's feet touched the ground when she stepped off the plane, she became an American citizen!!!! She was so excited and is very ready to be home and meet her brothers, sister, Mawmaw and many, many friends! 

P.S. 
For our local friends - we would love to see some friendly faces at the airport! We should be coming in at around 11:00 a.m. tomorrow, and we'll post details as soon as we know!