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

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!)