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

Beautiful, hand-picked team

Adoption is a process in much the same way as learning to ride a bike while learning to play the violin while learning to eat a burrito without making a mess. It's an inexact science that feels messy and impossible.

That is why it has been such a sweet blessing to have the beautiful, hand-picked team of supporters we have around us. So many of you have leaned into us during this process and we are so very thankful! And, in particular, God has blessed us with sojourners who are further down the path than we, people who have and do turn around and shout with love and grace-filled lungs 'keep going! You're doing great! You're almost there!'

It is to these dear people - Dave and Donna, Dave and Maggie, Scott and Whitney - that we are especially thankful for today. We would ask that you all who read this would know you play a special and vital role in our lives AND know that in different ways and seasons, God gives us particular people to reveal Himself to us.

We'd also like to issue a small, prayerful challenge: find those beautiful, hand-picked (by God) people who are leading you in this race and thank them. Readysetgo!

Love you all,
Bethany and Wayne

A looooong overdue update!

Hello friends! Sorry for the lengthy hiatus of blogging our adoption adventure...a mixture of moving and trips and laziness has kept us from being diligent in updating. Many thanks to all of you, as you've been consistent and loving in asking how things are going and in prayer - it's because of these tangible pictures of love that we want to more regularly update you all on how things are going. OK, enough of that, on to updates!

- Once/month our agency sends us an email with an update on how offend our profile is viewed (which is, thanks to many of you, a pretty substantial number!) and, more importantly, we are given an update on how often our full profile is requested by birth mothers; this number is an indicator that we are piquing the interest of potential birth mothers AND is also a number we are (prayerfully) not getting too hung up on - a birth mother can select dozens of profiles for further review if she pleases (and she is encouraged to do just that! It's a big decision and we want her to have as much information about as many adoptive parents as she can)

- Our profile was requested by 4 birth mothers February 10 - March 10, 9 times between March and April and 14 times between April and May. Pretty cool indeed!

- We recently moved into our first house (woot!) and are excited to add that to our profile as we will have even more space for Baby Patterson to grow up in (don't worry, we are still super close to Haile Village and our family). Many of our local friends have asked if we will have a house warming party and the answer is YES - and, many of you gracious people have asked the follow up question about gifts and, for now, it's probably best to just do Target or Home Depot gift cards (I know...boring) as we get ourselves situated 

- Some have asked for updates on fundraising and so we will post a separate update about that soon

- One last FAQ we have been asked recently: 'can we share your profile on line/Twitter/Facebook/etc?' and that's a big ol affirmative! Repost and share  as much as you want - any birth mother out there who finds our Angel Adoption profile will be directed to our coordinators, so YES, please post that profile link ( http://www.angeladoptioninc.com/birthmothers/choose-a-family/profile/wayne-bethany.html ) all over the place

Thanks for all the love and prayers, our hearts are full and we are experiencing the daily Grace of God in the journey. Love to you all,

Bethany and Wayne 

Update: money stuff

We've had several questions recently about how fundraising is going and what is next in that regard. We have raised $11,400. READ THAT AGAIN. WOOWWW. Have we thanked you all lately for helping make that happen?? 

We sent $7200 of that total to Angel Adoptions 2 month ago so here's a break down/overview of what's next...maybe:
- Medical expenses for the birth mother; not all birth mothers need assistance so this number could be $0 or it could be $2400. We have put in our profile that we are willing to assist if the birth mother has a need. Our agency coordinators will give our profiles to mothers who need assistance AND mothers who don't - by being willing to assist we hit a wider range of birth mothers
- Travel expenses to meet the birth mother if she desires that; so this could also be $0 or it could be $3000+ if she lives in the middle of Washington. Again, in an attempt to be able to connect to the most birth mothers possible, we put in that we are WILLING to travel, if that is something a birth mother so desires
- Legal fees; this will range from $3000 to $10,000 depending on which state our birth mother is from, if there are any special laws in that state, etc. If a birth mother from Florida chooses us, this will dramatically reduce this cost. If a birth mother from Colorado (currently a difficult legal state to adopt from) that number could easily go to high side of that range (or over)
- Hospital and hotel stay during the birth of our child: this one is a totally wide open number; we will need to stay in a hotel in the city where our birth mother gives birth from up to 2 weeks and we will need to get an adjacent room to her in the hospital for up to 3 days (well, that 'up to' could go any direction but we are required to plan on being in the hospital for 3 days). 

OK, that's a lot of information so here's the summary: we could still be on the hook for up to $18-20k or that number could much closer to $6-7k. You generous people have asked how to continue to help financially. There you have it - we have right around $4200 in the bank to go towards what's next. 

Love you all!!

Bethany and Wayne 

Our profile is alive!

That's right, friends, our adoption profile is live and out there for a birth mother to see. Wow!!

Here's what this means with a lmore detail: 

- A paper version of our profile will be sent from our agency (Angel Adoptions) to their local contacts (example: Women's Resource Center in Gainesville or a church they trust in Atlanta or a birth mom they have connected with in the past)

- Those paper versions are already being sent out 

- The paper version (we'll post some pictures of that) is a format that many birth mothers appreciate over electronic versions; there is, however, an electronic version as well - AND you can check it out right now! 

http://www.angeladoptioninc.com/birthmothers/choose-a-family/profile/wayne-bethany.html

- That link will you take you to the profile that anyone can find, including potential birth mothers. It is not, however, the extensive profile that a birth mother will have access to if she partners with Angel Adoptions

- You are welcome to repost that link 

- We will receive monthly updates and we'll hear how many times our profile was sent out and how many birth mothers were interested in our profile; Wayne is overly excited about these monthly updates, because, well, he sucks at waiting and not doing something (another post coming about that - waiting isn't nothing, and how hard that is to live in; thank you Dave Ainsworth for your wisdom and guidance there)

- There are elements of our profile that you won't be able to see, specific parameters that are for birth mothers to use when deciding if we are the adoptive parents she wants to choose; as an example, we have indicated we are willing to travel to meet our birth mother before she chooses us. We won't go over all of these parameters but we want you to know so you can get a glimpse at how we are waiting and how we are trying to increase the number of potential birth mothers we connect with

- If you guys have any questions about any of this, let us know! wayne.rivercross@gmail.com is the best way to ask questions.

Prayer request: Would you all pray with us that our profile would be found by the right birth mother? Would you also pray for our hearts as we wait for our child to come into our home? We do not have any fairy tale idea of a child completing us AND we very much look forward to the privilege of parenting. God is a good, gracious and perfect Father and we want

to reflect that into our child's life.

Thank you all for your continues support!

Bethany and Wayne 

PROFILE TIME!

Hey friends, a quick update that will lead into a bunch of updates: we have begun working on our Adoption Profile!

This is a big step as this will be the main avenue for a birth mother to choose us as the parents she would like bless with a child. Even as we type that it sounds crazier and bigger than we could ever imagine - and, more that crazy and big, it feels more and more REAL than ever before!

Our profile will consist of pictures (of us, our family, our home, neighborhood and things we like to do), our adoption story (why we are so excited about adoption), about us (who we are, where we're from, favorite movie, etc.) and a letter to our birth mother. We're humbled and honored to be able to tell our birth mother that we have an amazing community of people who are already walking with us and will be by our side every step of the way. Here's the page on Angel Adoption that shows portions of the profile (many more details are available for a birth mother to look through if she likes a profile).

Would you join us in praying for a birth mother to choose us? Would you pray for her to be safe and loved and valued during this difficult time?

We'll be updating you soon on when we finish the profile AND, if you'd like, you can email Wayne (wayne.rivercross@gmail.com) with any pictures you have of us and you that you would be OK with us including in our profile (have to be high quality and have to be .jpg though!).

More soon, love you all!

Bethany and Wayne