Incredible You

You guys are really something else. Do you know that? Do you? I mean, buying a shirt might seem like such an inconsequential thing to you. Not to us. To us, it is you reaching out your hand and offering to walk side by side with us all the way across the world to bring our girl home. To us, it is you saying, "This thing Adam and Baylor are trying to do is worthy of me investing my resources." To us, it is you giving sacrificially to help us walk the path the Lord has laid at our feet. You are making it possible for us to adopt our daughter, for us to fly around the planet and bring her into our family, into her family.

So you might think you just bought a shirt. But please let me assure you, you did a whole lot more.

And for that, we are humbly, fully and deeply thankful.

Pursuing international adoption has caused Adam and me to do something we are not very good at doing: ask for help. You see, we can commit to running after this girl, bringing her home and loving her for all of our days. But first we have to get to her. And we can't do that alone. With international adoption costing what it does, we just can't.

But then God sends us you. You, who freely give your resources, your prayer and your love. You, who have known us all our lives. You, whom we have never even met. You, who see this path as one worthy of walking. You, who helped us bring our son home and are now doing the same for our daughter.

YOU ARE INCREDIBLE.

And incredible you purchased 151 shirts. 151! That is enough to cover half of our first agency payment! You did that.

Thank you. We could never say it enough.

With all my love,
Baylor

P.S. We should receive the shirts during the first week of March, and then I will make it my mission to get them to you as fast as possible.

Mess This Up

We are in such a good place right now. Bradley and Asher are both thriving. They love each other so well. They are happy. They are healthy. We have found our rhythm. And when I sit back and look at them, I find myself feeling tempted to think,

"Why would I do something that could mess this up?"

It's tempting to say that we are done, our family is complete. Two kids and a dog. That's good, right? We both come from families with two kids. Two's company and three's a crowd, ya know? And the truth is, if that's what God had asked of our lives, we would be done. DONE.

But right in the middle of things moving and grooving along, God appears to have asked us to trust Him again and take the first step toward adding another daughter to our family. And while I am so, so excited, there is a part of me that KNOWS this will have such a profound impact on the two sweet babes who already share our home.

I remember having these same feelings right before Asher was born. Bradley was in such a good place. I felt like all of our hard work had paid off and we had finally turned a corner. He was so happy and eager to love. He was so obviously secure in his role as our son. And I just knew that when baby girl came along, he would take such a hit. And he did. The first three months were tough. I told Adam that we needed to get an apartment and Asher could live there with me while Bradley and Adam stayed in the house. Then after six months we could reconvene and see if we were ready to all live together. HA! Seriously, though. It was rough going.

But now! Now I watching these two play together and laugh. I watch my son help take care of his sister. And I just think, "YES. This is family. This is what it's about."

And then I get so excited about doing it again. About bringing another daughter into our family. About watching our current two learn to love her. About watching Babe #3 learn to love her brother and sister. About watching my own love grow again.

So this little family right here is not done growing just yet! 

I can't wait to see what the Lord is going to do in each of us through this next adventure. And I am so thankful that so many of you have already linked arms with us to help get our girl home. We are still selling our t-shirts, baseball tees and tank tops to help fundraiser for this adoption. Shirts will be in sale through February 16. Our great big goal is 500 shirts sold. And our goal for this weekend is to get to 100. Right now, we are at 63 shirts sold. SO CLOSE! Will you help us today? Click the link below to shop!

www.theknotts.bigcartel.com

With love,
Baylor

Here We Go Again!

Remember that time the Lord called us to adopt a precious boy from the other side of the world and so many of you locked arms beside us to bring him home?

Well...

It's happening again! Adam and I are so excited to announce that we have started the process to adopt Baby Knott #3! This time we are heading to China to bring home a sweet baby girl. In 2010, when we first felt the call to adopt, our hearts first went to China, but we did not meet the age requirement at that time. It ended up being a huge blessing because the Lord brought us our sweet Bradley bear. And then Asher girl right on his heels. Now, our hearts are being pulled back to China and the sweet little girl we know will be ours. 

It all feels so very surreal. Looking at a binder full of forms to fill out. Starting to think about gathering all the necessary documents to gain foreign adoption approval. Getting our finances in order. 

It's different this time because I know how long the whole thing can be.  It's also different because I have seen the sheer BEAUTY that comes once it is over. I know what it is to adopt, and I now know for certain that it is the single greatest adventure God has asked of our lives. 

So we are going to ask you to come alongside us again. We need your love and your prayers. Our daughter does, too. Eek! 

And we want to offer you an opportunity to be part of our girl's story in a tangible way, too, so we are selling shirts to help offset some of the cost of our adoption. Last time we were both working and had no kids and it was still a big stretch. We literally could not have done it without you. So as we step out in faith, trying our best to trust God's plan for our family, we humbly ask you to partner with us to get our girl home. 

Our design this time is reflecting back on a verse that has become so dear to me. 

"Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope. Even now I announce that I will restore twice as much unto you." Zechariah 9:12

I love the idea of being a prisoner of hope, held captive by hope in Christ. And I am in CONSTANT need of being reminded to return to my fortress, God, my Rock. It is from Him alone that all blessings flow. Nothing has shown me that truth quite like walking through the world of international adoption. 

Here is a peek at the styles we are offering this time. 

Super cute baseball tees! 

Grey with navy sleeves or grey with maroon sleeves. 

Both are adorable and super soft. 

Crew neck tees in heathered kelly green or heathered navy blue! 

Awesome t-shirts and easy to wear colors. 

Tank tops in berry pink and heathered black! 

I am SO excited about these! Great for hitting the gym or out and about! 

Click HERE to place your order. 

We will be taking orders until February 16. Our goal (Oh, please, Lord!) is to sell 500 shirts. Yikes. That's a lot. All orders will be shipped directly to us, and then we will get tham to you. Purchase price includes shipping if you live far away and delivery if you are nearby. 

Please send us pictures of you in your shirts! We have multiple pages in Bradley's adoption book of people in their shirts all around the world. We want to do the same thing for our sweet girl so she can see how many incredible people helped us get her home! 

Lots more to come on our journey to Baby Knott #3! 

With love, 

Baylor