<div>My name is Carole and Patrick is my husband of 30 years. We have three wonderful children together. However, Patrick has not seen his children in person in many years. Here’s a short story of how this happened. 


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<div>Our lives together changed unexpectedly in 2011. We decided to move to another country to help others, specifically to teach Bible truths. We sold our house, our cars, and essentially everything we had to make this move. 


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<div>Notably, Patrick is from Nigeria but up until then he had lived most of his life in the United States, coming here as a young man. We met and then married in 1995 and soon after started our family. 


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<div>After some years we decided we wanted to do more to help people learn more about our creator, Jehovah God through teaching the Bible as I stated earlier. This started our journey. 


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<div>Patrick needed to return to Nigeria to get a travel visa from there to join us in our suggested country. Me and the kids, at the time ages 14, 9, and 6, had gone ahead of him. Patrick had left to Nigeria and week earlier. He was told it would take about two weeks to get the visa to come to us. So we were thinking 3 to 4 weeks at the most that we would be apart. 


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<div>This is when things began to change. Patrick was not granted the visa and had to stay in Nigeria away from us. It was the scariest time of my life to be in a foreign country with three young children without my husband. However, we still had faith that he would be able to come to us in a short time.  This never happened. He was never granted a visa to come there. 


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<div>Me and the children did the best we could and we had massive support from our friends there and in the U.S. 


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<div>After about four years of trying to get Patrick there, we decided it was time to come back to the United States and try and get our family back together under one roof. 


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<div>Again we ran into a hurdle we have not been able to get over. Patrick has not as yet been able to return to the United States. It can take many years as we have found out, even though he is married to a U.S. citizen and has never broken any laws. He has lived his life as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses as we all have. 


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<div>Unfortunately, in about 2019 Patrick was diagnosed with glaucoma, an incurable disease that can eventually lead to blindness. He has tried Western and traditional medicine to try and delay his vision loss. And another unfortunate situation is I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021, also an incurable disease. 


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<div>Thankfully I have been able to get the medical care I need to delay the progression of my disease. However, I am on a fixed disability income and have a lot of medical expenses. But this is not the case with Patrick. The treatments he has tried have not been very successful. He cannot get the care he needs in Nigeria. 


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<div>Patrick’s absence from our family has been devastating. He has not been able to physically be in his children’s lives, although thanks to Jehovah and technology, we talk to him daily. So our family bond is as strong as ever. 


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<div>As difficult as it has been for me and the kids, the trauma this has caused to Patrick is unimaginable. Now to have his vision deteriorating and the possibility of not seeing his children again is  too devastating to even think about. 


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<div>Because of all of the immigration issues, which are getting harder, we have had to hire attorneys to try and get an expedited medical waiver for him to be granted a visa. We have paid almost half of the legal fees on our own, but for us to move any further we need to pay the rest of the legal and government fees for this to move forward. We need help and this is why we are reaching out. I am mentally and emotionally exhausted from trying to do this on my own. 


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<div>The money will be used to pay the legal and government fees to move this forward. It will also be used for him to travel here to get treatment, and most of all to see his children in case his vision loss is now irreversible. 


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<div>I am so grateful and thankful to the friends that have supported our family in so many ways over the years, more than I can express. 


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<div>We would be grateful and appreciate every donation, no matter how small, that will help us reach our goal. We thank you in advance. 


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Maria Bernal-Perez

Anonymous

Veeta Frederick's iphone

Celeste Reed-Smith

Doris Moore

Jocelyn Rhodes

Kim Hawkins

Alina Porter

Carissa Haley

Priscilla Padron

Support Patrick's Medical and Legal Journey

Support Patrick's Medical and Legal Journey

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