Updates!

Hey friends, sorry we haven't done a better job keeping you updated via this blog – hopefully you have seen some adorable pictures on Instagram and Facebook and are aware of how much fun it is to have our sweet Ivey home!

We could not be more grateful for all of your prayerfull and generous financial support – from the bottom of our hearts thank you! God has showed his faithfulness and kindness to us in countless ways, and that includes each of you. 

Ivey is healthy and happy and is beginning to truly express her sweet personality; anyone who has met her has probably already noticed just how calm and fun she is! We have our two-month doctors appointment on Friday so we will have updated statistics but at the last check up she was doing great on all of the measurable scales; Wayne is particularly proud of the fact that she is in the 93rd percentile for head size. She's just like her daddy on that one.

As far as where we stand on the financial side of things: we will still be on the hook for between $1-2000, made up of social worker follow up visits (at least 3 of which we've already had 2) and legal filings and lawyer fees as we complete the adoption process in Florida. If you feel so led to give anything toward that we would be grateful - and, as usual, if you ever have any questions about the details of where money has gone or is going, don't hesitate to ask! God has been lavishly blessing us in the financial aspects of this adoption and explaining details is another way for us to brag on him.

We will have another post later this week with a couple of ways that we are still fundraising (still have T-shirts, necklaces and are starting a couple of other cool things). Stay tuned for that. Grace and peace to all of you!

Bethany, Wayne and Ivey Jane Patterson

Eep! 24ish hours!

Our birth mom has a scheduled c-section at 2pm tomorrow so we are within 24 hours of getting to meet our sweet girl!

Because our birth mom has full rights to change her mind (we met with her yesterday - first time! - and she is supremely confident in her decision so keep praying but we are feeling better) we can't publicly post anything until after the 48 hour window. We will text but best bet to have up to the minute update on healthy birth is to check with our parents. Also, because it can take as much as 6 months for Ivey to officially/legally become ours, we won't be able to post public pictures for a while..we CAN text or email pictures so feel free to ask! Just don't share them anywhere on social media.

Money update: we have been hit with a few of those 'unexpected costs' this week, primarily in getting legal stuff printed, scanned, rushed delivery. So, with our most recent donations, we are at about $1900 short of the $6000 (this is 100% legal stuff). That $6000 is due on Sunday when we leave the hospital and is the minimum dollar amount that we will be on the hook for. It could stay right at $6k or it could fluctuate based on 1) medical expenses for our birth mom that arise that aren't covered by her insurance; 2) legal fees (seriously, someone go into adoption law, you'll be a millionaire) that arise and aren't covered by the $6k; 3) travel/not being home. We are staying with family so most of this is planned and covered (meaning we don't have to pay for a hotel room like many families) but the longer it takes to get the Georgia legal stuff cleared the more groceries and such we need to take care of up here.

SO: if you're still interested in giving any amount, we could certainly still use it! If anything we ever talk about money-wise is confusing or doesn't seem to follow precious posts (we're learning that we didn't truly understand the phrase 'stay flexible!' until we started the adoption process), please feel free to ask! Love you all!

Bethany and Wayne 

Final Countdown: some things to know

OK party people, we are in the home stretch! Our baby girl is set to be born in just over a week (February 6th) in Georgia and we are beside ourselves in excitement and anticipation - although our levels of excitement and anticipation pale in comparison to our moms, Nana Bear and Gran Jan. Those two...wowsa. Somebody get them a baby!

We wanted to cover a few things as we go into the most crucial portion of this adoption process, some of which are sensitive things that we could use prayer on.

First, we will be heading to Georgia a few days early AND will be there for a couple of weeks after our baby's birth (more on this in a bit); that means, Gainesville and River Cross, we will be out of pocket for basically 3 weeks. If you need anything, the number one person to go to is Tyler Gibbens (gibbens.tyler@gmail.com). Tyler is a rock star and an all around incredible guy and will be the one running point on all things River Cross: Fort Clarke while we're away. If you don't hear from us for a few weeks, know that we love you and are appreciative for your love and support!

Second, we will be going to Georgia to welcome our first child into the world - and, the reality is, we are also embarking on a lengthy legal journey. We will be staying in Georgia for 7-10 business days AFTER our birth mom relinquishes her birth rights (48 hours after birth) while the lawyers file paper work. The prayer here is that we would keep our hearts and eyes focused on what's most important: God's lavish love being expressed by blessing us with a daughter!

Third, our birth mom can change her mind. A few of our braver friends have asked (and we are grateful!): what happens if she changes her mind? The harsh, practical answer: we grieve and start over. Until our birth mom signs the papers at the 48 hours (after birth) mark releasing our girl, we will be praying harder and more fervently than ever. We have friends who just adopted (their daughter was born 12/26/14) and they told us it's the hardest 2 days of your life. SO: if you want to pray for something uber specific, there you have it. We won't belabor this point any further, mostly because we are supremely confident that the Lord has appointed us to adopt and parent this baby girl and our birth mother has been consistently reminding us of how confident she feels in this choice ("I know this is my purpose", "I am so excited and happy for you two!", "I want Bethany to have first skin-to-skin contact, not me" are all things she has said). So, she won't change her mind. One bonus item on this: we can't post anything those first 48 hours so if you don't hear or see anything, don't panic.

Fourth, yes, there are still ways you can help: we have had some incredibly gracious donations come in since our last post (thank you!!) and we now have roughly $4300 of the $6000 that will be due a couple days after the birth. Also, in case you haven't seen it (we feel bad re-posting the same thing over and over, but so many of you have told us that people want to know how to help so...), we have a registry on amazon.com (Wayne and Bethany Patterson), AND we will always - seriously, always - accept formula, diapers and wipes! And, just in the off chance this is one of you: anyone want to sell us/give us a good condition mini van? I have told God I'm tired of mentioning that one but, well, He's God, so..

Fifth, and last: this is a story about adoption that we are in - it is not about us and we are not the author. This is a story about Jesus and His great love for the world and His relentless desire to see many sons and daughters be adopted into His forever Kingdom. We know our role to play in this story is essential and we are honored to be given so much freedom and grace as we walk in (or try to walk in..) obedience to our King. But, above all else, this is a story about Him.

Grace to you all!

Bethany and Wayne

Final stretch!

We have a conference call today with our lawyer to discuss the final details for Bringing Home Baby Patterson - eek! It's getting so close! During this conference call we will discuss the last batch of money that we will owe: mostly hospital related costs for our birth mother (we don't pay the whole of it, but some portion), and legal fees for both Ivey's birth state and Florida.

Through the generosity all of you have shown us, we have about $3000* left in our adoption account and we anticipate having somewhere in the neighborhood of $6500 left to pay out. That number could change (in either direction!) based on our conversation with our lawyer today but, it does give a pretty good idea of where we are.

SO, to the many of you who have asked recently "how can we help":
1) We are still accepting donations
  - Via PayPal (my account is under wayne.rivercross@gmail.com)
  - youcaring.com Bringing Home Baby Patterson
  - Venmo (my account is under Wayne Patterson, 7574127432)
  - Good, old fashioned check of money (our address: 6034 SW 85th St. Gainesville, FL 32608)
2) We have an Amazon Baby Registry! Any of these items will be tremendously helpful - lots of our family and friends around the country (we love you Atlanta and VB!) have asked if there was anyway we could have a baby shower in those places and we really had hoped there was some way...

Baby Patterson is due in 18 days so keep praying for our birth mother and for all of the last minute details to go smoothly and for our transition into parenting. Love and grace to you all!!

Bethany and Wayne

*That number would be $7700 but we were hit with a large and unexpected adoption cost; we can't discuss what this cost was publicly but if you'd like to know, don't hesitate to ask

Generosity

In the last 5 days we've received generous gifts of all kinds of amounts, including gifts of multiple hundreds of dollars and $10; and, truly, each of those gifts have been incredibly generous! The heart behind that $10 donation and the heart behind the multi-hundred dollar gifts, we deeply believe and trust, are one in the same. Generosity looks different person to person but all *true* generosity is a heart issue. I've given bigger (emphasis on the 'er' not the big) sums of money that were not generous and I never heard of any stories of the person I'd given that money having any kind of break through. Conversely, I've given smaller amounts out a place of conviction and love (true generosity) and heard of that small amount being a huge blessing. Jesus talked about this much more eloquently than I ever could when He pointed out to His disciples that the rich folks made a spectacle of dropping large chunks of money in the collection plate and they received their reward by having others ooo and ahhh. In contrast, Jesus pointed out, the poor widow who dropped in two small copper coins gave eternally more than the show-y folks. It's a heart issue. To be clear: you can be wealthy and truly generous! And, in the same way, you can be in poverty and quite greedy.

I say all that to get to here: we are in need of generosity. We've had about $1800 come in in the last 5 days (such a blessing!!) by way of donations and you all buying our shirts and jewelry. That means we need to raise about $5200 in the next couple of days (by Friday afternoon) to cover our next batch of costs (legal fees and money we are providing our birth mother to help with rent and medical expenses). We have a faithful God who keeps on providing so we know He will continue to do so! And, perhaps, He's using you to His end of provision.

A question we've been asked is "OK, but what if you don't get the money?" - and we have only one answer: God is faithful and it WILL happen! If we need to take out loans or use credit, we will absolutely do that; this baby - our baby! - is coming home. We refuse to guilt anyone into giving us money and we also know that the sovereign God of the universe has called us to adopt this baby boy or girl so we're excited to see how He will provide (again)!

Care to join us? C'mon c'mon!

Wayne

$7,000

Hey friends, thanks for all who have so faithfully and graciously joined us on this journey to bring home Baby Patterson - we hope that our gratitude is clearly and consistently expressed! We have a big and expensive ask in this post and we feel like we ask more than we express gratitude so if we say thank you an annoying amount, well, it's to make sure we express our deep gratitude in light of our feelings of apprehension (and even guilt) in asking.

We have $4100 in our adoption account from ongoing fundraising the past year plus and we have had another couple of hundred come in from t-shirt sales and jewelry which is fantastic because we have our next major chunk of money due to the tune of about $11,500 (legal + money to help our birth mom + updating home study) meaning we need to come up with $7,000 in the next week or so.

We hope you will continue to consider us as we have goods for sale that can make great Christmas presents, AND, very boldly, we are asking if you would consider a monetary donation of any size. We will have to do a similar ask again in a few weeks (not as much but still bold) so know that this audacious ask is going to be compounded by further asks. This is our reality and keeps us humble (and honestly, in our flesh, we feel some measure of guilt and even embarrassment and yet we remember that God has called us to this and we're reminded that He's the faithful one who keeps providing through each of you and the guilt and embarrassment subside).

So, there you have it. We need to raise $7000 in the next 7 days. IF you're up for take a chipping in on that:
1) go to our You Caring site or
2) send a check to Bethany and Wayne Patterson 6034 SW 85th St Gainesville, FL 32608 or
3) use Venmo  (app or online) and search for Wayne Patterson or 7574127432

Thanks so much, we love you and are grateful for each of you,

Bethany and Wayne

Fund raising stuff!

Some of the most common questions we've been asked in is "how much money do you guys have left to raise?" and the very similar "how can we help?" and, in the same vein, "can we throw you guys a shower??" Phenomenal questions! I'll answer the last one first: SURE! We still need to get a few details figured out (like gender, which seems to be important when having a baby shower; we're new at this so we're learning as we go). On to the first two questions, money and help! And...we don't know. Well, we know some things that we can share and we know other things we can't publicly mention (like pre-set amounts we are willing to give to our birth mom and how much we are specifically paying to our lawyers, that sort of thing).

Sounds nice and ambiguous, eh? Sorry about that, truly we are. If you have questions and want specific answer and are comfortable keeping information to yourself and your family, please feel free to call or email us any time. We can tell you more person-to-person than we can say publicly as this is, largely, a legal procedure. That sounds cold and crass as we know this 'legal procedure' ends with our baby home with us, but we have to navigate things carefully. You understand, so moving on.

Going forward we will be looking at spending around $19,000 (including an updated home study, two lawyers, travel expenses, hospital expenses for the birth mom and for ourselves, financial support for our birth mom). With ongoing fundraising from you generous people we've raised almost $14,000 (that has been spent mostly on the adoption agency, home study round one and fees associated with those two) and we have $4100 of that still in the bank MEANING, we will be fundraising for the balance of ~$18,900. If that hasn't lost you yet, that means this adoption will come in somewhere around $34,000. I hope when you read that number you know that we would never have logically jumped into this - we serve a God who has called us to this adoption and we know that He will see us through, AND we know He is using so many of you as a part of His plan to bring home Baby Patterson! Please, if you're considering adoption (and we genuinely encourage you to at least consider adoption), don't let $$ be the reason you stop. Adoption is amazing and we lovingly encourage you to take the risky and wonderful step of faith to begin!

SO, how are we going to fund raise for this last $15k or so? Great question! Several ways:
- One: the t-shirt sales! You guys have already ordered over 50 which will raise almost $600 and we've had requests for more - click that link to be taken to the page with the details on ordering/donating for those
- We are also selling handmade Ugandan jewelry! Check out this page on our site and let us know which colors you'd like - 100% of what you pay for the bracelets and necklaces goes to funding bringing Baby Patterson home
- We haven't published this yet, but you can save this date: Saturday morning, January 10th our buddy, Rob Goldsmith's awesome company Fund Racers is hosting Run For Adoption 5k in the Haile Village with all proceeds going to our adoption fund - sign ups will start soon AND if you are business and would be interested in sponsoring this event, follow the Fund Racers link or email me and we will get you set up.
- Donations of any kind! We have set up specific site for fundraising with the total amount, $14,900 that you can donate any time, any amount - this site, youcaring.com, has an option for you to NOT have to pay any fees (wonderful!!) but you have to select that, it won't just default to no fee. If you feel compelled to pay the minimum fee (or any fee for that matter) feel free! It's a great site that gives its services for free because of those voluntary fees - just know that those fees don't go to us. Cool? We will update the total amount needed on that page as we get funds in from various avenues
- In addition to the site linked, you can send cash or checks (6034 SW 85th St., Gainesville, FL 32608), use the Venmo service, PayPal (linked on the front page of our blog) or you can come visit us and donate hugs!
- We WILL have baby showers (in multiple geographic locations) but haven't nailed those down just yet; we are very grateful for the generosity of folks wanting to throw us baby showers! We will let folks know when and where those will be. If, however, you have a mini van that you'd like to donate...you can do that any time (I have deleted that line several times and feel compelled to leave it. God is a big God, so I will post that in faith and leave it at that).
- We are prayerfully trying to be as judicious and Christ-honoring with all of these funds coming in from you sweet people; if, after we get to Baby Patterson's due date, we have extra funds, we will gladly work through the details of getting you your hard earned money back OR we can pay it forward to other families going through the adoption process. We will discuss that when it gets closer, but just so you know, we desire to be good stewards with these lavishly given resources.

Surely you haven't read every word of this (LOTS and lots of information...) so feel free to ask anything any time! We are forever grateful for each of you and can't wait to tell our son or daughter the story/stories of how so many people loved them before they drew breath. We love you all,

For His Kingdom and glory,
Bethany and Wayne