LOA!

We are so, so excited to share that we have received our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from China! What does that mean? It means that we have been officially accepted by the government as Lucy's prospective adoptive parents. This is an ENORMOUS milestone for our family! 

So what now? 

Now we fill out another heap of forms to get the different approvals required. Yaaaaay paperwork! 

And, of course, the big question: When do we leave? Well, today our social worker said to expect travel in 2.5-3 months. So it looks like it will for sure be early summer when our family officially grows by one more precious soul. 

Adam and I are just stunned. This is all happening so quickly. And it is INSANE to type that about adding children to our family. We are thankful to the core to our great and glorious God for His provision in our family. And we are thankful for you, too. So many of you have encouraged and supported us along the way. You have prayed for us, spoken truth to us, cried with us, rejoiced with us, and reminded us of God's unwavering faithfulness. Thank you. 

Many of you have asked how you can help over the coming months. Here are some things we have going on: 

1. Prayer. We so desperately need your prayer. Please pray for our daughter, that she stays healthy, that she stays safe, that she feels love every single day, that God gives her peace and prepares her heart to join our family. Please pray for Bradley and Asher, that the Lord would prepare their hearts for this great big change, that they would continue to know how deeply we love and cherish them both. Please pray for us, that we would rest in God's peace during the next few months, that God would renew our strength for the first few months home. 

2. Yard Sale: If you are local to the Birmingham area, we are having a yard sale on April 14. If you have items you are looking to get rid of, we will take them off your hands! We are accepting any and all donations, so send us your junk! 

3. Donations: We shared last week that we are breaking into new territory with this adoption and doing something that is so uncomfortable for us: asking our community to prayerfully consider donating toward our adoption. And you all have been so amazing. In just a few short days, you have donated 10% of our remaining adoption costs. WOW! If you are interested in supporting us in this way, you can click HERE to be taken to our fundraising page. 

Today, we are celebrating being one step closer to our precious girl! 

With love, 

Baylor 

Trusting God in a New Way

Now that the adrenaline rush of last week's biggest surprise ever is starting to subside, I am finding myself feeling wholly and completely overwhelmed by God's grace and favor in life of our family. I absolutely cannot believe that this is our life. I was telling Adam last week that feel as though our life as a family has come full circle. When we originally felt the Lord leading us to adoption in 2010, He drew our hearts to China. We weren't old enough yet to meet the requirements, but we knew that adoption, especially adoption from China, was going to be a part of the Knott family story one day.

As years progressed and we fought to bring Bradley home, the Lord was continually asking us to trust Him, to believe in His holy sovereignty. He was asking us to walk by faith and not by sight. And it was so hard, because the things we could see terrified us, made us believe that our vision for our family was simply impossible. There were days, even months, when it looked like we would not be able to adopt from Ethiopia. And then, with one phone call, our lives were forever changed. We saw God's faithfulness revealed in the face of our son. The Lord showed us, through Bradley's adoption, that He can be trusted in every circumstance, that we can throw our lives at His feet and KNOW that He is good.

And then there was sweet Asher, the surprise we never saw coming. When we were told that biological children would not be part of our life we mourned deeply. We grieved the loss of what we though our family would be: a beautiful reflection of what we imagine the family of God to be like. Over the years, the Lord was again asking us to trust Him. And it was so hard. But slowly, He broke us down and then rebuilt us, teaching us all along the way that He is worthy of our love, our loyalty and our trust. So when we found out about our first daughter, we were reminded again of God's faithfulness, of His goodness, of His perfect timing.

And now we face something completely foreign to us: an adoption that is moving at lightning speed. When my phone rang last week and Maggie told me that we had a daughter on the other side of the world, my soul fell silent except to say, "Thank you, Lord." I know that only He could have done this. Adding children to our family has always been so difficult, so fraught with obstacles, so seemingly impossible. And in that one moment, the Lord, in His infinite goodness, redeemed years of grief and hardship. It is as if He is extending His hand of grace directly to us and merely asking that we take it.

And we are so honored to do it, to add another life to love to our family. She is already so dear to us, and we are so ready to have her home. But here is the tricky part about an adoption that moves faster than you expect: We are now in the position of having to trust God in a new way. We are having to trust God to provide financially in a very short amount of time. Prior to last week, we thought that we would be matched this time next year. So we have been diligently saving and planning fundraisers (t-shirts, yard sales, etc.). And it looked like we might be OK just doing that.

But now things have drastically changed. We are planning on traveling to bring Baby Knott #3 home in June. That means we have about three months to finance our remaining adoption costs, which, at this point, are substantial. After much discussion and a lot of prayer, we are going to do something that I swore to myself I would never, EVER do. We are going to turn to you, our community, and ask that you prayerfully consider helping us bring our daughter home by donating toward our adoption.

I don't like asking for help. I actually pretty much hate it. But I love my daughter more, and I know that there is no way we can get to her and bring her home in this short amount of time on our own. We have applied for grants, and we are still planning yard sales. We are still saving as much as we can, but we need help. We have set up a YouCaring link that you can donate to, if you feel so led. PLEASE do not feel obligated in ANY way. We know this is asking a lot, and, believe me, we feel plenty awkward doing it, but we are trying to step out in faith and believe that the Lord will provide a way for us to bring her home. I have included the link below.

CLICK HERE

I could never say it enough, but thank you. Thank you for loving our family. So many of you prayed right alongside us to bring Bradley home. And then you prayed Asher safely here. And then you prayed for this adoption. Our family would not be where we are without you, and we want you to know that we know that. You have been the hands and feet of Jesus in our life.

With deep love,
Adam, Baylor, Bradley, Asher and Lucy

A Mountain Thrown Into The Sea: Seeing Her Face

So on Thursday morning, I was sitting in my car in our church parking lot about to go in and teach an ESL class on the proper use of the present continuous tense. As I was trying to eat my granola bar and finish my coffee, my phone rang. It was Maggie, our social worker. I immediately thought, "Which form did I forget to sign?" Our papers have only been in China since the end of November, so I knew nothing had expired, and I was planning on a 12-18 month wait for a referral.

I answered, and she responded with a very happy sounding, "Hey, Baylor, How are you?"

My heart immediately dropped into my shoes. There is only one reason an adoption social worker uses that hopeful, upbeat tone of voice.

YOU GUYS. WE HAVE BEEN MATCHED WITH OUR DAUGHTER.

I had no eloquent words for Maggie. No gracious response. I was stunned into near silence.

Somehow, I managed to listen as she told me a little bit about our precious girl and that she would email us her file and picture. I feel like I am usually pretty well-spoken, but I could barely get out complete sentences. At some point, I told her I needed to talk to Adam and that I would call her back.

I ran upstairs and told our ministry leader that I could not, in fact, give a lesson on the present continuous tense today but that my lesson plan was in her inbox. She graciously understood and I raced off to Adam's clinic.

On the way, I called him and called him and called him. No answer. So I did what I only do in emergencies. I voice paged him. He, of course, thought something was wrong, but I told him to just call me back right away.

He did, and I got to break the very best kind of news to him. We have a referral! He was just as shocked as I was.

A few moments later, in a supply closet at his clinic, we saw her face for the very first time.

These are screen grabs from a video, so pardon the blurriness. 

But I think the sentiment in clear. 

 We are in love. 

And also in shock! 

And later that afternoon, we got to do the most AMAZING thing. We got show Bradley and Asher their new little sister for the very first time.

 Bradley's first words? 

"We go get her now?" 

My feelings, exactly. 

Asher's first words to her new sister? 

"Hi!" 

Oh, dear friends, we are awed and humbled by God's abundant grace and favor in our family. With our first adoption, it seemed like we ran into every single brick wall that existed, like we would never get to Bradley. And then with Asher, well, we just didn't even think she was in the realm of possibility for us. And now, to see the Lord extend His hand of mercy to us in this powerful, tangible, real-life way....well, we are speechless expect to say, "Thank you, Lord." 

So it looks like we are going to travel to China early this summer to bring our girl home. That's in like three months. GULP. 

More is coming soon on what the next few months hold in store, but for now, we just ask you to join us in thanking our great and powerful God for working a MIRACLE for our family's good and His glory! 

“Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 

‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart 

but believes that what they say will happen, 

it will be done for them."

Mark 11:23

With love, 

Baylor