Woohoo!

That's right after just 41 days since LID on 7/11

WE got Letter of Seeking Confirmation (aka LOA) for Eli!!! YES!!!

 

Introducing our son: Eli Joshua Patton!

God is so totally AMAZING!

The LOA picture above we took so that we would have an awesome announcement picture when we got LOA (lol). See we planned and took that picture on 8/21 on the beach in Galveston, TX.

But we did not know at that time, that we in fact had LOA... dated 8/21. Wow!

And why were we in galveston, TX you ask...

Well because we went to get the addendum docs for Kai (aka Joseph)'s adoption certified by the Secretary of State in Austin, TX on Mon 8/20.

We stopped for coffee and a meet & visit with Tim & Pam Baker of Sheherd's Field. What a blessed visit we had. Thanks Tim & Pam!

Then we drove onto Houston, TX in order to deliver the docs to the Chinese Consulate on Tues 8/21 to be authenticated. We *RUSHED* them next day, so we could picked them up Wed 8/22.

Which gave us a FREE day with Zoe & Levi in the Houston area. And well Levi had never seen a real ocean. So off to the beach we went. On the way down to Galveston we thought of the idea for the LOA pic. We stopped at Walmart and bought a couple pairs of Flip Flops, a ball and ta-dah!

We had an absolutely wonderful time at the beach. We played in the ocean, built sand castles and just had fun together as a family. Unfortunately, Cory & Drew are grown up and work now. So they stayed back to take care of the house and dogs. But they were there in spirit...

And so were Kai & Eli

Steve drew directions to them and so Zoe & Levi headed to go get them.

If only it were that simple right...

But instead we have LOTS of paperwork. In fact here is a snapshot of our LOA for Eli.

 

Which has to go back to China because there is an error concerning his DOB.

 

But not to worry God is using that mistake to help speed up Kai's paperwork and hopefully get his LOA really quickly. Our case manager is calling it:

Divine intervention
a term for a miracle perceived to be caused by God's active involvement in the human world

 

BTW, that is the current major prayer request: Kai's LOA to come super fast... like 2 wks or less :)

 

And please pray also that we get the funds we need to cover the upcoming expenses.

 

We need to finish raising Eli's orphanage donation fee and his child's Visa fee. The total is $5,900 but I need to see how far along we are toward that goal and post an update. Our goal was $3,000 by Sept 2nd, cuz I thought that would be before LOA. haha! God is so AMAZING like that!

 

Now we are also praying to get a waiver for Kai's orphanage donation fee. That would be another miracle that I believe God can do in Jesus name, Amen!

 

We do need Kai's I-800 fee of $720, that is due next. But we received another $240 (Thank you!) thru our Chip in for Kai http://adventure4eli.chipin.com/kais-uscis-fee towards his USCIS fees bringing our total to $272 of $720... So we only need $448 for that. Thank you Lord!

 

And we have a couple more big praise reports!!!

 

Also, I spoke with Brittany's Hope today and we have received $620 in donations to date towards Eli's matching seedling grant. Woohoo! Only $380 to go to make our goal of $1,000 and they will match it and send our agency $2,000 towards our adoption after we get TA. Donations are tax deductible too. So check it out: https://www.brittanyshope.org/seedling/patton/

 

Next we received a a large donation in the amount of $5,000 thru our I Care adoption account. Praise you Jesus! Please bless the giver Father! Thank you Lord! I Care is another way to help if you'd like to make a TAX DEDUCTIBLE Donation, you can mail a check to:

I Care
P.O. Box 1603Bel Air,
Maryland 21014

 

We are praying blessing tenfold for all those that have prayed, supported & helped us. Hallelujah!

 

I'm saying good night for now, I will try to update more tomorrow when we know more./

Hugs,

Sherry





It's Here!

Our new I-797 approving us to adopt TWO!!!

Kai (aka Joseph) will be so excited when he hears the shirt he's wearing is from HIS FAMILY!!!

Love this smile!

And the shirt fit him :)

Notice the LEGOs in his hand... That's an airplane!

I'm told this is his "Last picture" look... lol

Thank you Sara (on left) for keeping me updated on our boy.

So we are headed to Austin again, to get these last documents certified by the Secretary of the State; and then onto Houston again, to get them authenticated. Then we will send them to our agency, who will send them to Ch*na. Then we will wait for Kai's LOA.

Meanwhile, we are on Day 40 of LOA wait for Eli.

tick. tock. tick. tock.

Zoe told me to quit counting, She said that I am making it take longer.

Certainly not my intention, but isn't this what we adoptive momma do?

We count till the next milestone...

And LOA is a BIG milestone!

The average LOA these days is running about 2 months.

But I have seen one as early as 43...

However, I have not heard from our agency that we are out of translation, which some say comes 2-3 weeks before LOA. So...

But I am hoping to get an update on Eli soon. So stay tuned & please pray for that we get a good report soon. We need to know both our boys are doing ok.

So blessed to know that both our boys love dogs.

God is good!

I continue to be amazed and humbled by this entire process and fact, that I am momma to TWO boys clear across the world...

And I can NOT wait to bring them home!!!

I also wanted to say thank you again to all our prayer warriors and supporters. Through you the Lord has provided all the needed funds to present. And even today we received a large donation towards Kai's USCIS I-800 fee. So I KNOW my God will provide. And I pray HE blessed you all tenfold!

In Christ's Service,
Sherry

The Good News Continues

I was making coffee early this morning before hubby went to work, when he comes into the kitchen and excitedly asks:

"Did you see the email?!?!"

I was like

Um, no... what email?

This email:

Good morning.
I approved your Supplement 3 this morning and placed it in the outgoing mail. You should receive it soon.
Congratulations!
USCIS Officer X X

 Woohoo!

Kai we are working on it boy, we are working on it!

So based on how long it took for our I-797 to arrive before, we expect it to come Friday.

So Monday we plan to travel to get it, our home study update & the Dear CCCWA letter certified by the Secretary of the State.

Then Tuesday we plan to drop them off to be authenticated by the Chinese Consulate. We will pay the extra $fee to rush it and pick them back up Wednesday am.

Then we will be racing to send them to our agency.

So they can send them to China & we can then wait for LOA for Kai.

Meanwhile...

We are on DAY 36 of waiting for Eli's LOA.

Getting closer Eli, we are getting closer buddy!

That's the continued Good News.

Now back to your regularly scheduled lives,

Cuz we sure can't get back to ours until we get our boys HOME

Till next time,
Sherry

Today was a good day!

I woke up this morning to the message

"We got the package!!!!"

Finally after waiting TWO weeks, the care pkg we sent for Kai Joseph arrived at SFCV.

For those that don't know, that is a Lego Ninjagu guy names "Kai" :)

He likes music, so...

more school & art supplies

The card has...

“For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”                                           - Jeremiah 29:11

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.                         – Mark 11:24

She named him Joseph, and said, “May the Lord add another son to my family.”   - Genesis 30:24

 

The Bible says Joseph was abandoned by his family, but God had a big plan for his life. So after many years of being faithful to God, the Lord blessed Joseph and raised him up to be a great ruler in Egypt. So great that he was an important part of saving his family, the Israelites & Egypt during a great famine. And so God replaced all that he had lost.

and since he doesn't know he has a family yet the card says...

 Joseph,

We care about you and are praying for you and for all your dreams to come true.

Don’t lose HOPE!

We hope you enjoy these gifts. And know that someone miles away loves you.

Thsi is my favorite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we also sent him a watch attached to the backpack

I think he likes this one cuz it's green... one of his favorite colors.

The bracelet says Love in Chinese and English cuz he lives in the "House of Love"

These pictures made my week!

But I also had a very productive day...

Thanks to my good friend Lindsey (Hi- ya Lindz)

She came over today and helped me re-do our classroom for the coming school year.

We decorated with all four of my students in mind.

Each boy will have his own wall space for displaying his work

wipe off & chalk boards at the appropriate heights for everyone

Both America & Asia celebrated

Zoe gets her own space cuz she's in high school

Our home school puts God first

I am not done with the classroom yet...

But it's a good start and I am getting so excited!

Hope everyone else is enjoying the Back to School season.

Can't wait for Autumn. It's my favorite season

But this year really just want Kai & Eli home...

AND to help us do that we have been blessed with one more tool

A Non-Profit organization called -  I CARE

They have set up an adoption account for us and anyone wanting to make a
TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION
can do so by mailing a check to:

I CARE
PO Box 1603
Bel Air, Maryland 21014


Please include a small note saying that it is for the "Patton adoption fund"


Also, they will only send a letter at year end to you for tax purposes.

Please share  this opportunity with anyone you know interested in making a tax deductible donation and helping bring Eli & Kai home.

Thank you & God bless you all tenfold in advance!

Blessings until next time,
Sherry

Laptop Give Away Day

Thank you everyone for your prayers, donations and support to help us bring Kai home.

Today after church Levi spotted a butterfly flutter across the driveway as we drove up. We have a fascination with them, and ladybugs, ever since we started the adoptions. So I tried to take a pic and found at least three on a tree next to our driveway. :) But I could only get one good pic, cuz the others were to high up to see with my phone camera. But I will still take it as good news...

We did hit our goal!!!

And raised over $5000, which covers the current expenses!!!

Praise God!

Now onto the drawing...

"Joyce" Wang, of Hong Kong, was our winner!!!

Wow, we had folks from all over the US, Canada, even China AND Hong Kong donating!

Have to give God the glory for this one, cuz I know it had more to do with HIM than a laptop. Thank you Jesus!

Here is this video Steve took while Zoe & Levi drew. I LOVE my kids! Although they are so much more goofy when the camera isn't filming... lol

Well, it's been a long couple weeks. I am going to bed content knowing that: 1) God is still in control and blessing this path HE called us to follow; and 2) we are that much closer to bringing Kai home.

We can't wait to love on him and enjoy him as part of our family... AND help get him the medical attention he needs for his heart, to better his life.

I am in awe at how awesome and amazing God truly is, and can't wait to bring BOTH our new sons home.

Thank you all once again. May the good Lord bless you all tenfold for your prayers, donations and support. ALL of which is very much needed & appreciated.

'Night,
Sherry (and Steve, who keeps doodling things like LOA & TA on pads of paper...)

Correction

Ok, while filling out all the tickets for tomorrows drawing

I found the tickets for the local Donations we received...

THE LOCAL DONATIONS!!!!

We received $140 through local donations that i forgot to account for in my previous post.

So praise God we only need another $260 to actually send the $1200 for Kai's CCCWA fees.

Woohoo!!!!

So, I am changing Kai's Chip-In from $5160 (posted earlier) to $5020.

Hallelujah! I believe God will do this. Please help us and be a part of this awesome testimony.

Please please share about this GIVE AWAY because SOMEONE's name will be drawn

TOMORROW at 9:00 pm CST to receive this BRAND NEW HP LAPTOP

Donate $5 to get your name in the drawing

$20 to get your name in 5 x's

Share this and send me the link to get your name in again. :)

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

God bless tenfold,
Sherry & Steve

PRAISE GOD!

The Lord has blessed us to meet our Chip-In Goal for Kai!!!

I am so over-joyed!!!

I opened Kai's Chip-In to put names on tickets because our drawing for the Laptop is tomorrow. And was so surpirsed to see that in addition to all the great donations we'd received from so many supportors, we were also blessed by a sweet fellow adoptive family in our homeschool group this morning who gave $585 to meet our goal.

What?!?!

HALLELUJAH!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU EVERYONE!

God is so AMAZING!

So I have a heart full of praise,

And one more prayer request...

Before we draw for the Laptop tomorrow.

While reconciling the Paypal account I realized I didn't account for the cost of the Laptop ($227.31) or the Paypal fees (currently up to $153.63). This makes us $380.94 short of actually having the $1200 to pay the CCCWA fees.

So my prayer request is that before we draw to GIVE AWAY the LAPTOP tomorrow at 9:00 pm CST, to one of YOU wonderful contributors, that we receive another $400 in DONATIONS to make up for the additional expenses.

So that is the reason for the bump up in the goal amount from $4760 to $5160.

The reason for this urgency is my other prayer request...

I spoke with our USCIS officer yesterday (Friday 8/10). He said that our Supp 3 made it to the NBC building and he expects it to hit his desk Monday. He said he will work on it ASAP. Last time he told me this on a Friday, he approved us Monday and we had it in our hands on Wed.

So I'm praying for the same thing this time... I pray he approves our Supp 3 request on Mon 8/13 and we have the Approval notice in our hands by Wed noon. So we can drive the 3 hours to the SOS in Austin, TX to get our 3 Dossier addendum documents before they close at 5pm. Meet up with a sweet lady flying to China to visit Shepherd's Field Thur (to give her a care pkg she's taking to Kai for us). Then drive 3 hours to Houston, TX to spend the night and be at the Chinese Consulate before 11am Thur to drop off our 3 docs to be rushed authenticated, spend the night in Houston again and pick up Fri am to race home for Steve to work at 4pm and overnight our Dossier addendum docs to our agency, so they can be sent to China. Woohoo! Because that is what the $1200 CCCWA fees are for...

I BELIEVE God can do this

He will make up for my miscalculation financially

He will move our paperwork at USCIS and in the mail

And will use HIS loving and caring people, so they too may be blessed...

Sherry & family