Friday, May 27, 2011

A good mistake and an update

Sometimes I am glad that I made a mistake! It is not often, but it does happen. :-)

I was looking at the figures from the other day when I calculated the expenses and thinking that something just wasn't right. I finally realized that I counted the expenses for the in country facilitators twice, so the actual amount we need to be fully funded is really $24,000 instead of $36,000! I feel like we just got a big check in the mail. It is still a lot of money, but somehow $24,000 seems much more manageable than $36,000.

Right now we are waiting to get all of our police clearances back. We already have our Texas clearances, but we are still waiting on the New York and FBI clearances. Our home study can't be officially approved until we have the FBI clearances so we are in a holding pattern until those come in.

Once we have the official home study we can submit for our USCIS approval and once that is done all we have to do is send in the dossier! We are getting closer and closer, one small step at a time.

Once the home study is complete we can also start applying for grants and loans. We are anxious to be able to do this so that we will have a better idea of how much we will still need to raise to get our little man home.

Keep praying!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

More Answered Prayer!

A while back I posted about Kiril's family's struggles to bring him home after a judge in his country denied his adoption. Many of us have been praying for hearts to be changed and Kiril's adoption to be approved and today his adoption was finalized. Kiril is coming home!! Praise God for answered prayer!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

That was a no good idea!

"That was a no good idea!" is Eve's way of saying "I don't think I should have done that!".

Tonight I decided I should sit down and figure out how much money we have spent so far on the adoption, and how much we have left to spend. Now I am saying "That was a no good idea!" I have just sent myself into a state of shock that may take a while to recover from!

The total cost to get Allen home will be about $41,000. We have already spent a total of $5,000 on various fees and paperwork. That leaves a grand total of $36,000 left to go. Gulp!

Deep breath! Deep breath! This is going to be OK!

I KNOW that God will provide the funds for this to happen. But in my humanness I wish that all $36,000 was already sitting in the bank just waiting for us to need it to pay the next expense on the list.

I have been praying about the possibility of adopting two little ones and after seeing these numbers and realizing that we will most likely never be able to afford to do this again I am praying even harder. The extra cost to adopt a second child from the same orphanage would be about $1,500 (which is just the medical clearance, visa, and transportation home). It makes my mind say "Why not just spend the extra $1,500 now and rescue two?" Compared to doing the entire process all over again in a few years to the tune of $41,000 it seems like a logical question.

Prayer requests:
That God will move mountains and provide the $36,000 that we still need to go get our little boy!
That God would clearly and specifically reveal His will if we are supposed to pursue bringing home Texas Jakubauskas #8.

Family Fun this Saturday!


If you are looking for something to do this weekend come join the Patterson Family for their Boss Your Heart Memorial Benefit and Team Roping Event!

Here are some of the details in case you can't read the flyer:

Saturday, May 21st

10a.m. - 5 p.m.

Hays County Civic Center

Spectator admission is free

Lots of family friendly activities (bounce house, horse rides, bake sale, games, etc.)

Roping books open at 10a.m. and roping starts at 11a.m.

Don't even ask me what all of the roping details mean, I have NO idea! Remember I grew up in New York! LOL


All of the proceeds from the benefit will be used to start the Patterson's new non-profit Boss Your Heart Orphan Ministries!


We'll be out there with our crew. Come join us for the fun!


Saturday, May 7, 2011

Answered Prayers

On Monday Eric went to the Fed Ex office to send off our first packet of documents to Europe. I had expected it to be a little expensive, but when he came home and told me it was $103 I almost fell over! I had a mini-panic attack thinking "Oh My! How many times are we going to have to do this?" I was seriously thinking we might have to do a fundraiser just to cover postal services!

A little while after he got home I went through the things I still had in my bag from the day before. Several people had very kindly given us checks or cash at church and I still had those in my bag to go through. Guess how much the donations totaled? $103!!!!!

God is so good! And He has a sense of humor.