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

Another cool way to help out

Our first batch of t-shirts have been ordered and we will start getting those in the mail in the next week and a half or so. We're excited to highlight another way you all can help us bring home Baby Patterson AND get some great stuff to use as Christmas presents or to add to your repertoire of awesome jewelry.

Our dear, sweet friends Scott and Whitney Waechter (who have been SO helpful in coaching us along in this adoption process) have graciously donated over 120 hand made paper bead necklaces and bracelents; here's a little info from Whitney:

The paper bead necklaces are hand made by women in Uganda who make them and sell them in the market places to provide food, shelter, and school fees for their children. So by purchasing a necklace, folks are helping your sweet baby join your family AND also helping impoverished women across the world feed and care for their children.:)

SO, we are happy to offer these awesome bracelets for $15 and necklaces for $25 with 100% of that money going to cover costs associated with bringing home Baby Patterson. Here's the deal on these great pieces: there are NO TWO ALIKE! That is awesome but will require a little flexibility on your part; if you want a certain color, we will do whatever we can to match that and send you the perfect one. Cool? Cool! Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of how great these are, including some of the women who made them!

Love 'em, dontcha?? We do too! Some of you have seen Bethany wear these and, well, if Bethany wears them, you know they're amazing. ORDERING: email Wayne (wayne.rivercross@gmail.com) with colors you'd like, how many and if you want a necklace or bracelet (and how many of each). Payment:

1) You can send us a check to:

Wayne and Bethany Patterson

6034 SW 85th St

Gainesville, FL 32608

If you don't live in Gainesville, add $5-8 to the total on the check for shipping; we're not going to try and go crazy calculating all the shipping to specifically, but if you live in Australia or something, add a few more bucks. Also, put 'Ugandan jewelry' in the memo line

2) You can use our PayPal donation account; you can do the same thing as with a check: total up your order ($15/bracelet, $25/necklace) and make a note of that on the PayPay page

3) You can use Venmo - a very safe, David Patterson-approved, money sharing site that also has a great iPhone and Android app. You can search for me (Wayne) by putting in my name or phone number (7574127432). It will ask you what the payment is for; Ugandan jewelry for that

4) You can find Bethany or I and just pay us in person, using any kind of money, even sacks of gold. Naw, don't use gold. Or BitCoin. We can't accept either of those.

Cool? Thanks so much! Let us know if you have any questions!

Bethany and Wayne

We're having a baby!

Dear wonderful family and friends: it has happened! This Monday we received a call from Jenna at Angel Adoptions saying she had a birth mom who "REALLY like your profile and would like to speak to you by phone"! We talked and prayed for a couple of hours and Monday evening spoke on the phone with this prospective birth mom and it went fantastic - we had lots in common, she is excited about blessing us, and we felt an immediate and deep connection. It couldn't have been a better phone call.

Today we spoke with Jenna again after she had followed up with our birth mother and confirmed that all was great and that we can begin to work with a local lawyer (that they love and trust). And, if all goes well, we will be parents on February 8th - only 15 and a half weeks from now! Wow!

So, some questions we have already been asked and that we will try and answer quickly here and in more detail in the near future:

1) we will find out the gender next week - so crazy!
2) we can't publicly say where our birth mom is from/where she will be delivering the baby
3) YES, we will have lots of fundraising needs, especially in regards to the legal proceedings. It can be between $4,000 and $20,000 BUT, we don't know any hard numbers right now until we've spoke with the attorney that works with Angel. We will keep you posted specifically on that as soon as we can
4) we WILL have some baby showers but won't know when those will be until we know the gender and have settled out a few other details (this is all happening wonderfully fast!)
5) until our baby is home (and therefore relinquishment laws have passed) NOTHING is official. Please keep praying for this process as we have been encouraged by our adoption coordinators to temper our excitement (just slightly!) with the knowledge that until Baby Patterson is home, there are still variables (the birth mom could change her mind, for example).


I'm sure there are other questions that you have so please, feel free to ask!

Thank you all so very much for your love and prayers and support - we serve a gracious God who has a deep desire to see all children in loving homes and we feel honored that He has chosen us to bring this baby home.

Love you all,

Bethany and Wayne (and soon-to-be-home Baby Patterson!)

T-shirt!

Hello crew, we wanted to let you know as soon as possible that we could that we are starting TWO fundraising opportunities that will be ways for you wonderful and generous people to help us as you buy Christmas presents for your friends and family. We will always accept donations but there's something great about giving something with each donation - plus, it's a tangible reminder to pray with us AND a way to tell the story of adoption!

SO: item one is a t-shirt (pictured below) that we will be selling for $20. I have not ordered them yet but I will once I've taken an initial pre-order from you all. Please comment below or email me (Wayne - wayne.rivercross@gmail.com) with your order (just a how many and sizes, no money yet!) and we'll get the ball rolling from there. Make sense? Readysetgo!

Payment:

1) You can send us a check to:

Wayne and Bethany Patterson

6034 SW 85th St

Gainesville, FL 32608

If you don't live in Gainesville, add $5-8 to the total on the check for shipping; we're not going to try and go crazy calculating all the shipping to specifically, but if you live in Australia or something, add a few more bucks. Also, put 'Fundraiser t-shirt' in the memo line

2) You can use our PayPal donation account; you can do the same thing as with a check: total up your order ($15/bracelet, $25/necklace) and make a note of that on the PayPay page

3) You can use Venmo - a very safe, David Patterson-approved, money sharing site that also has a great iPhone and Android app. You can search for me (Wayne) by putting in my name or phone number (7574127432). It will ask you what the payment is for; Fundraiser t-shirt for that

4) You can find Bethany or I and just pay us in person, using any kind of money, even sacks of gold. Naw, don't use gold. Or BitCoin. We can't accept either of those.

Month 8

Monday marked the start of our 8th month of waiting for Baby Patterson to come home - 8 months! That simultaneously sounds like an eternity and a blip. 8 months simultaneously feels like an eternity and a blip. 

'How's it going with the adoption?' is a common question we are asked and sometimes that can be fantastic and sometimes that can be draining. Mostly our answer is 'great!' because it is, in fact, GREAT. I mean, God has already allowed us to raise over $12k! We've already been able to encourage several couples to dive into the scary-yet-wonderful process of adoption! We've learned more about the heart of our Heavenly Father than we could have ever anticipated! So, it is great. And yet there's always a desire to answer that question 'how's it going with the adoption?' with a definitive, quantifiable answer. We can tell you we are have over 80 prospective birth moms that have requested our full profile and we can tell you that because of a recent donation we've been able to increase the amount we are able to financially support a potential birth mother and we can tell you that we're in the top of the bell curve (months 7-14 are when most birth moms select adoptive parents in our program) and all of those things are wonderful but they don't exactly tell the story. 

We are waiting* for our child to come home and no definitive, quantifiable measurements help that waiting go faster. We are waiting for our family to expand, for that tan room to become our baby's room, for you all to finally get the 'ok, NOW you can throw us that shower', for our parents to get the privilege of spoiling their grand kid. So, 8 months feels like an eternity.

BUT BUT BUT! Jesus. Jesus changes everything. Jesus pursued us through everything - through every mess up and stubbornness we could throw at Him. He pursued us through much more than we could ever imagine pursuing our child, through much more than any red tape or bureaucracy or financial hardship. 

8 months. An eternity and a blip all at once. Thanks for praying with and for us.

Bethany and Wayne

*a lot of what we're learning on waiting comes from dear friends who are running the race ahead of us. Here's a link to an incredible post by one of our friends Dave on how waiting isn't nothing. Have a read