Even in the little things

God is so totally involved in this adoption.

Even in the little things...

Last Wednesday 8/1 my friend Lindsey (Hi again) took me to the store called Mardels, which I mentioned in my last post. But what I failed to mention was finding the neatest student desk name plates. They were colorful, with alphabet, numbers, shapes, right & left hand; meant for lower elementary, but perfect for english learners.

Ooohhhh, how I wanted to buy them. But they only came in a big pkg of like 36 & not cheap enough for this frugal momma. So I decided to wait & try to maybe do it myself or something...

Well I am thrilled to tell you that Wed night at church I received TWO of these very same name badges...

And they're even already laminated!

My friend Lindsey is a public school teacher & friends with another teacher. They found them in used school materials & brought them to me.

It may seem "small", but to me, this was like God's shining down on us.
And it helped motivate me to prepare our homeschool classroom for the coming school term. Zoe, Levi & Zoe worked in there all day. Steve helped move furniture in the afernoon and we made a lot of progress, and...

Room for two more desks (which are also now on their way).   :)

Don't forget our LAPTOP GIVE AWAY to help bring Kai home... Get your donations in & we'll draw the name of the lucky contributor on Sunday Aug 12th at 9pm cst.

And Eli's puzzle fundraiser, which still has lots of pieces that need sponsors to help cover his orphanage donation fee.

Love when God shows up, and he shows out.

Basking in an accomplished day...

Please keep Kai lifted in prayers. I was told tonight that he has had a rough day of sadness over his friend being adopted last week.

Remember Kai Joseph still doesn't know we're matched to be his family.

Prayerfully & gratefully,
Sherry

Day 30

Well since it is after midnight here and already 8/9/12 in China anyway

I can offically say we are on Day 30 of our LOA wait for Eli.

Lots of families have received LOAs lately and many have been 50-60 days range, but a few have been in 40s. So only God knows because there is no rhyme or reason to the different wait times. Unfortunately, some families wait up to 120 + days. But we rebuke that in Jesus name and claim a shorter wait time for both our boys LOAs. Amen!

I guess I need to print & start filling out I-800 paperwork to be ready when we get that phone call...

Oh that is THE phone call!

THE call that says he is YOURS...

Can NOT wait!!!

Meanwhile we are waiting for our new I-797 for Kai from USCIS. Today was one week since they received our Supp 3. I almost called our officer today...

But instead decided to let it be and focus on homeschool stuff. :)

So Zoe & I hopped in the van and drove an hour to this wonderful new store my friend Lindsey (Hi Lindsey) introduced me to called "Mardels".

Mardels is like a Lifeway Christian Store and a teacher supply store/curriculum warehouse combined, and on steriods as Zoe says.

LOL

I needed a get away afternoon and I LOVE spending time with my girl Zoe. We laughed and had such a good time. It was a quick trip, as we had to get back for church. But I am so glad we went. I cherish these moments with her, as she is growing up quickly. I am so blessed to be her mom!

Zoe's 15th Birthday July 18

So we got a few things to freshen up the ole' home school classroom & ate dinner at Panda Express.

We always love to read the fortunes, just for fun of course. We put all our trust in God, not a piece of paper out of a cookie (which by the way is not even really Chinese).

But if God can use a DONKEY (that's Bible people, check it out)...

He can use a piece of paper to encourage His people. And I for one will take all the encouragement I can get.

"YOU WILL TRAVEL FAR AND WIDE"

YES!!!!

Not that we didn't already know that... lol

But it's nice to hear/read those words. Even if it is just a piece of paper out of a cookie. Hehe!

And just to remind me daily, I have a set of luggage now sitting in my bedroom. :)

Now hurry up USCIS and send us Kai's I-797 and China PLEASE hurry and send us Eli's LOA.

Please continue to pray for Eli & Kai.

I have not gotten an update on Eli in a while. But trust he is well.

Kai needs some extra prayers, as one of the people he is close to had to leave Shepherd's Field and go back home to the US. So grateful for this young lady Melissa Polensky, who was working at Sheperd's Field doing therapy for the kids and teaching English for the summer, is a friend to Kai and advocated her heart out for him to find his family... our family.

Melissa & Kai Joseph July 21, 2012 at Shepherd's Field

Melissa is responsible for the blog http://hejustwantsafamily.blogspot.com/ which God used to help show us we were that family for him.

Thank you God for Melissa & please bless her tenfold!

She is back home on US soil now. And Kai is missing her...

He will also see three kiddos from SFCV leave with their forever families this month. What a blessing for those children and their families, but may be difficult for our Kai, as he still can not be told he has been matched and has a family waiting to bring him home.

Pray he continues to HOPE and God keeps him healthy.

Getting our classroom together and planning our homeschool year is making me all the more anxious to bring my two boys home. Please pray the paperwork and process moves quickly, and also that the finances would continue to come in. We have had a slow week and our LAPTOP GIVE AWAY is Sun 8/12/12 at 9pm CST. So there is still time to get those donations in to help pay for Kai's CCCWA fees. We also still have LOTS of puzzle pieces to help bring Eli home and pay for his Orphanage Donation fee. We may be half way to LOA and so we may have less than a month to come up with it.

Well, I was just going to drop a short note and look what happened...

I don't think my brain knows the word "SHORT"

Other than mine and my children's stature. lol

Heading to bed for a few hours sleep at least.

Thank you to all our prayer warriors and supporters. We couldn't do this without you.

Blessings,
Sherry

good news

So my wonderful hubby was off work today. :)

Yay!

We both had projects planned to accomplish,

but AFTER biscuits and gravy. :)

Yum!

It is wonderful that my hubby likes to make biscuits and gravy.

So... we had a slow morning, brunch, and each began working on different projects.

Noon passes and hubby come upstairs to where I am to bring me an envelope...

an important looking envelope...

with return address Department of Homeland Security...

REALLY?!?!?!

OMGoodness!!!!

I begin yelling and praising God and getting happy and excited.

Only to open it and find a receipt for our $360 check for our Supp 3 application

With the line "THIS NOTICE DOES NOT GRANT ANY IMMIGRATION STATUS OR BENEFIT"

right across the top...

So NOT the approval

But our "application has been forwarded to the Hague Adoption Unit..."

and

"Please allow 10-14 business days, to accomodate shipping and processing, for your application to reach the Hague Adoption Unit."

So all my excited behavior for not.

Except that we are in process and that is better than lost of hiccups.

In fact, we mailed our adoption agency the signed docs and agreements they required to add second child

along with the $3,200 check.

Praise God for His provision!

All of that money & the $360 to USCIS was riased since we locked Kai Joseph's file Thur 7/26.

We are so honored & privleged to be a part of this wonderful miracle

and to give Kai (aka Joseph) a home and a family. :)

But we are definately NOT done yet...

Remember we are still doing the LAPTOP GIVE AWAY

Donate $5 to get yoru name in the drawing or $20 and we'll add your name 5 x's.

Drawing Sunday 8/12/12 9pm CST

We are trying to raise the last $700 needed to cover Kai's CCCWA fees as soon as the new I-797 approval from USCIS shows up

for real... lol

And please DON'T FORGET about Eli!

We are still trying to raise his Orphanage Donation fee for when we get LOA...

$3,000 in 30 Days has not even received one Chip In donation.

In fact, even Kai's Chip In hasn't budged in days.

Kinda discouraged...

a little bit... but trusting God!

Both these boys are our sons

God called us to adopt both of them...

together & at the same time.

They are now brothers

And we can't wait to bring them both home.

Here is a pic we received recently of Eli (left) eating noodles with a foster brother

And here is an OLD picture of Kai (right) eating noodle with a foster brother

I better get to learning how to cook chinese noodles for these two brothers!

Kai is gonna be such a good big brother to Eli

I just know it!

Please keep praying for Kai and his heart, emotionally & physically.

Thank you all & prasie to God, to HIM be the glory and the honor forever!

Love,

Sherry & family

And the winner is...

Eli

We raised approx $190 towards Eli's orphanage donation fee

and

Bonnie Yoakum is the happy owner of the Video Camera

Thank you everyone that supported us!!!

If you didn't get your chance or want to help more

Eli does have a puzzle fundraiser going to continue to raise his orphanage donation fee.

Each piece is $5 to sponsor and we will write your name on the back. Then after we get all the pieces sponsored, we will put it together and in a double sided glass frame to show him all the people that helped bring him home.

You can donate via Chip-In Bring Eli Home or via Paypal to adventure4eli@gmail.com and specify "Gift for Eli's Puzzle"

This has been a quiet reflective weekend for me

Yesterday marked 9 months since we first saw Eli's picture & this video of him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeGa-SAgpqA&feature=plcp

Thus falling in LOVE with him!

As I think about the last nine months and this adoption process

all the work, prayer, blessings, sweat & tears, I realize this is WORSE than pregnancy & labor!

and I didn't like enjoy either of those...

But the end result was always worth it

and I can't wait for this end result

I want to hold my boy in my arms

The above picture may be one of my favorite pics of Eli

Why? You ask

because that red book in his hand, is the photo album we sent him introducing our family

 and the box the lady in the picture is holding is the keyboard we sent him...

he loved the photo album of his family more!

Thus the end result will be worth the wait...

"But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint."

Isaiah 40:31

May God bless all the givers tenfold

and may we all WAIT on the Lord.

Sincerely,

Sherry

Happy, Humble, Hopeful

Happy...

to have our Chinese Visas in hand!

Steve & I made that 3 hour drive (each way) again today to pick up our Visas.

And after handing the clerk $560, we have our Passports, with Visas, in our possession.

Woohoo!

That's one more thing to check off our list... x

Which means one step closer to bringing our boys home.

Humble...

to have been so blessed by so many people giving financially & encouragement too.

Before I give figures I want to share what one family wrote with their donation:

"May this little bit bless your family and Kai! We have been praying for him since around January as a family. The strange amount is due to the fact that our oldest son Mateo (he is 6 and adopted from Guatemala) wanted to share his $1.25 that he has, to help Joseph come home. :) We are in the process of bringing home a 12 year old girl from China who has cerebral palsy. (Hopefully by November- we are on day 43 of our LOA wait). Blessings on your family!"

This family is adopting a special needs child themselves, and yet they gave to help us...

Their 6 yr old child gave "his $1.25"... probably all he had...

Mark 12
⁴¹ Jesus sat near the Temple money box and watched the people put in their money. Many rich people gave large sums of money.⁴² Then a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which were only worth a few cents.
⁴³ Calling his followers to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow gave more than all those rich people. ⁴⁴ They gave only what they did not need. This woman is very poor, but she gave all she had; she gave all she had to live on."

*I would like to add here, that little Mateo needs our prayers: In 3 weeks he is going to have a very complicated and rare surgery on his spinal cord. Please join me in praying for him & his family.

Next, please do NOT feel unappreciated for giving more than this child. We totally appreciate ALL the donations. For sure!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

That is not my point here.

But I cried when I read this family's note to us.

It is very overwhelming to be JOSEPH's parents.

So many people have prayed for him, donated, supporting, encouraged him... for years!

And God just brings us onto the scene when he's 13 and entrusts us with this wonderful boy.

We just do not have words...

Plus

In one week God has provided $4,260 in our hands for Kai (aka Joseph) adoption.

Wow! Praise our AMAZING Father in Heaven!

We are only $500 short of making our goal of $4760.

Note: This does not include the Paypal fees taken out of the donations thus far: $129.17

*Don't get me wrong, we are thankful for Paypal & the privilege of using their service. We just have a little more to fundraise in order to use it's service.  :)

Plus, we can't forget the cost of the Laptop: $227.31 (Thank you Steve's boss for the awesome deal!)

So we really need at least $856.48 to make our goal... But how amazing is that? Hallelujah!


Now, we had enough already, that we paid for the $360 USCIS Supp 3 fee to add Kai. Woohoo!

We have enough now that Monday we can mail the $700 2nd child application fee & $2500 of agency fees for 2nd child. Yay!

And we only need $500 more to make our goal and be able to pay the $1200 CCCWA fees that go with the I-797 & home study update to China for Kai's adoption. Hallelujah!

Reminder: We are going to DRAW a name to give the LAPTOP to on Sun 8-12-12. So there is still plenty of time to get those donations in, if you haven't had a chance yet.

I guess this would be a good time to remember the next fee due, not included in the goal above, is the $720 USCIS I-800 fee for 2nd child. Not due until after we receive Kai's LOA, so we have time. :)

Hopeful...

Many people have asked about making a donation that is tax deductible.

Well we now have an answer

Reece's Rainbow was advocating for Joseph (aka Kai) to find a family.

And thru Reece's Rainbow we now have a grant of $3,355 towards Kai Joseph's later adoption. PTL!

Thank you to all that gave! May the Lord bless you tenfold!

Nearly $1,000 of that came in after we announced our LOCKING his file & submitting LOI. :)

Well since his family has found him, and we have PA, his individual child grant thru Reece's Rainbow has ended. See his page moved to the "My Family Found Me" page http://reecesrainbow.org/category/rescued

And now the answer: Reece's Rainbow offered us a "Family Sponsorship Program" page to help raise money to bring both our boys home. http://reecesrainbow.org/42289/sponsorpatton

Thank you Jesus!

*See also the Reece's Rainbow Donate Button on the right side of our blog.

And please spread the word for any that wish to donate to help us bring our boys home

AND get a tax deduction at the same time.

The donations made to Reece's Rainbow can only be disbursed once we receive travel dates. So we still need to fundraise these couple fees due soon. (I'm checking on Orphanage Donation fee due date)

Please don't forgot Eli!

We are still accepting donations towards Eli's Orphanage Donation Fee

We are on day 25 of our wait for LOA for Eli & praying it comes soon. Other families have been seeing LOA's in about 53-63 days. So if Eli's comes in that time frame, we need to be prepared to pay his Orphanage Donation fee of $5,600 + his travel Visa of $300. We have about $2,900 saved & raised towards this amount.

So we started a new Chip-In to try and raise the other $3,000 in 30 days...

See Bring Eli Home http://adventure4eli.chipin.com/bring-eli-home or Chip-In on right of blog.

And you will get your name in the drawing for the Video Camera on THIS Sun 8/5

*Note: Please use Eli's Chip-In Button, not Kai's

$5 donation for name in drawing once or $20 Donation for 5 x's. If you share link & email me at adventure4eli@gmail.com we will also put your name in the drawing. We need everyone's support!

 

Or you can sponsor a Puzzle Piece for only a $5 donation & we will put your name on back.

Also, for anyone wanting to DOUBLE their donation

AND get a tax deduction

Eli was awarded a Brittany's Hope Seedling Grant of $2,000

What that means is when Brittany's Hope receives $1,000 in donations for our adoption

https://www.brittanyshope.org/seedling/patton/  (See also on right side of blog)

They will match it and send $2,000 to our adoption agency upon us receiving travel approval.

That is exciting!

And proves how every dollar & cent helps.

So if you want to double your gift towards bringing our boys home, please donate to our Brittany's Hope Seedling Grant.

Thank you again to everyone!!!

We continue to pray blessings on you all tenfold for your prayers and gifts.

Finally, I'd like to invite you all to meet Kai Joseph Patton

This is a MUST SEE!

Melissa, who write his blog & is currently at Shepherd's Field in China, posted this today:

http://hejustwantsafamily.blogspot.com/

Well on that note, it has been a LONG exciting BLESSED week

And I am one very thankful momma

Who needs sleep...

Good night all,

Sherry

Financial Update

I would like to start off by praising God for HIS bountiful blessings...

He has totally AMAZED us in one week's time.

And all of you, our's, Kai & Eli's supportors, we want to say a BIG hearty

because you have given so generosly, we ahve been able to raise raised $3,490.25 to date (11:50pm TX time Aug 2, 2012) to bring Kai home, just in one week!

Woohoo!!!!

I am so humbled by all your comments, emails, & mesages.

Now, so what do we still need, you ask?

Well, after reading financial agreements, emails, phone calls and more emails, we have finally figured out at least the initial amount of fees we need for Kai Joseph's adoption due Monday.

It has been explained to me that our boys' adoptions, though happening concurrently, are actually two totally seperate adoptions, and we do have to pay several fees twice.

But God is our provider and HE knew that before HE called us to bring Kai & Eli home...

So we start with the $360 Supp 3 fee, that due to your giving hearts, we sent to USCIS on Tues.

Yay!

Next we have the adoption agency fees due to be sent on Monday.

We had thought that was going to just be $2,500 for the agency fee (half for a second child).

Then we were told about our adoption agency's application fee of $700. So that changed our goal to $3,200 by Monday.

But it seems we actually owe $3,000 for the agency fee, because it has increased since we filled out Eli's adoption paperwork.

However, we have been told a request for scholarship for some of those fees, to try to offset the bigger amount, was sent on our behalf. But it could be several weeks before we have an answer. So for now, we have been instructed by our agency to go ahead and send the $3,200 we anticipated on Monday.

We do actually owe $3,700 now I guess, but we shall see what God has in store...

Now, as I mentioned we have raised $3,490.25 - $360 (USCIS fee) paid Tues = $3,130.25
available to go towards the adoption agency fees.

That means we are only approx $70 from our goal of $3,560, but actually a little more due to paypal fees of 2.9% plus 0.30 cents per donation. Sorry, I did not do that math this late at night. lol

Hallelujah!!!!

I think it's safe to say we can now begin to fundraise for the next step... (Yay!)
Which I also found out more about today.

We will wait for I-797 from USCIS approving us for two children. Then we will take it: our Home Study Update and a formal letter to CCCWA from us; to be certified by the Secretary of the State & also authenticated by Chinese Consulate.... Which yes means yet another trip to Houston. Now I know why last year we moved to a town on the I-45. We are in a triangle between Houston, Dallas & Austin, which makes us 1-3 hours from any of the above.

Inccidentally, we are headed to Houston again tomorrow to pick up our travel Visa's & passports. :-)

Anyway, fees for this step is not major. Besides gas to get there we will pay $30 to SOS & $60 for Chinese Consulate to certify & authenticate the docs. Only $90 + gas for our Dossier addedum docs. Thank you Lord!

After that step is done we send all of that to our agency and that is when the next fees are due, which I believe are $1,200.

And if I wasn't so tired & falling asleep I might just keep writing all night to give you all the scoop. But remember I am going to Houston tomorrow and it's been a tiring week, but a BLESSED one.

Please keep Kai & Eli in your prayers, as I know you will.

Don't forget Kai's Laptop Give Away drawing 8/12/12, just make a $5 donation.

And Eli's Video Camera Give Away Drawing is Sunday, there is still time to make a donation and get your name in the drawing. We are still working on raising Eli's Orphanage Donation Fee.

Ok, I need sleep now... Sigh

May the Lord bless you all tenfold!

Hugs,
Sherry

We got PA for Kai Joseph!!!

Hallelujiah!

Praise the Lord!

That's right at 10:45pm on 8/1/12 we received an email from our agency fwd the following:

August 01,2012

The application of Steven Patton and Sherry Patton for adoption of **Kai Joseph** from **Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village** that you submitted was received. It is hereby advised that with a review of the Rehabilitation and Nurture Plan for the Child made by the family, the Ch1na Centre of Adoption Affairs agrees to move this application file into the procedure for adoption of special-need children.

Ch1na Centre of Adoption Affairs

God has AMAZING putting all this together...

God check out http://hejustwantsafamily.blogspot.com/ to read story about Kai's US & TX flag pin

And I am kicking myself now for not blogging last night or earlier this eve, because yesterday Steve & I had a full day of productive accomplishments towards both boys' adoptions.

We started the day by driving 3 hours to Houston to the Chinese Consulate to apply for our China Travel Visas for Steve, myself, Zoe & Levi to travel to bring the Eli & Kai home.

Successfully got in & out in 20 min, no joke!

And our Visas will be ready for pick-up on Fri.

Woohoo!

Next stop was the Houston Central Post Office to mail a care pkg to Kai.

Even though he doesn't know about us yet, we wanted to send some gifts to cheer him up & keep him busy ince his buddy Philip left with his family last weekend.

Art supplies & Lego Ninjagu t-shirts

All within his interest genre

Backpack for the trip home :)

After successfully shipping the pkg, Steve & I had lunch on our way headed back home.

Realizing we still had time, we raced back 3 hours to the house to then photo copy and gather all the Supp 3 docs to send to USCIS to add a second child to our adoption.

We understand some may think it was a risk sending that $360 check to Homeland Security yesterday without PA in our hands, but it was not a risk to us...

We BELIEVE God called us to be Kai Joseph's family!

And therefore, we acted in FAITH because we trust God to be FAITHFUL.

And we are so thrilled to officially have PA & call both him & Eli our sons.

Now to bring them home...

Praise God, we are half way to making our goal of raising $4,000 for Kai by PA.

But then PA did come in just 4 days!

And we are only $500 short of our original goal of $2,500.

Yay!

Since last Thurs announcement of us adopting Kai, we have received $2,050 towards his adoption.

We just sent $360 to USCI.

Which means we need $810 ASAP to pay our agency fee of "half for a second child".

And we may be needing $1,200 for CCCWA soon too. Will double check that tomorrow.

So we are asking if you are at all able to donate please do.

We will be giving away a laptop to say thank you to one lucky contributor. A $5 donation gets yoru name in teh drawing and $20 gets your name in 5 times.

If you can PRAY... even better! Please pray!

Also, please don't forget about Eli...

We are still fundraising for his Orphanage Donation fee of $5,600 and I'm happy to report we have close to half of it. Praise God!
We have a brand new Mini Video Camera that we would like to give it away this Sun as a thank you for donations to help bring Eli home. A $5 donation gets yoru name in teh drawing and $20 gets your name in 5 times. See pic and Chip In on right.
We also have the puzzle fundraiser too. Sponsor a puzzle piece and get your name on the back. Only $5 per piece to sponsor. This is a fundrasier for Eli's Orphanage Donation fee.

Well it has been an eventful 24-48 hours...

Who am I kidding it has been an eventful 2 weeks +

And for anyone who is wondering... Levi & Zoe are doing well with all the hussel & bussel over their new brothers. In fact I think Levi is enjoying mom being busy cuz he's concurred the new Lego Batman game he and Dad bought last month and he's enjoying a lot of pizza lately.

And Zoe, well we celebrated her 15th Birthday in July.

Can't believe how grown up my only girl is...

She had a Batman party.

Yep, you read that correct.

Zoe is in love with Batman, and now has 5 brothers... what do you expect?

Actually, speaking of that, she is working on her own blog: One of Six

More info on that to come very soon...

Well, it has been an eventful couple of weeks & can NOT wait to see what else God has in store.

We are all so excited!

In fact, when we got the email about PA

I yelled "We got PA!"

Steve said "Really?!"

I said yes, and ran to tell the kids...

Meanwhile he posted to facebook before I could get back. lol

So yes, just a little happy here about both our boys coming home.

This was our counting board today.

Well, this is one tired momma who needs some sleep.

Please continue to pray for both Kai & Eli, and for the process and the finances. We believe God will provide and we pray that he bless each & every person who gives tenfold.

Thanks again everyone!!!

Humbly,
Sherry