Isn't It Interesting

I never get tired of God showing up. Never.

On Sunday night, hundreds of you joined us in prayer for our daughter's adoption case. You prayed that she would feel loved. You prayed that her caregivers would have extra strength. And you prayed that we would get the necessary document to move our case forward this week.

Well, I got a call from the director of our agency's China program this morning letting me know that the in-country staff says we should have everything we need by the end of THIS WEEK.

You GUYS! Thank you for begging God alongside us.

I want to say that I cannot believe it, but I totally can.

As soon as I got off the phone with her, I called Adam to tell him the news and he said, "Isn't it interesting how as soon as we share what our prayer needs are, God moves?"

Yeah, it is interesting. It reminds me that God WANTS us to ask great big things of Him. He wants us to come running to Him. Over and over again in my life--especially since we began our first adoption process--I have seen God wait. I've seen Him wait until we reach out to the world and ask you to join us in prayer to do something HUGE.

And I might wonder why, but I think I know. When we ask Him to move in God-sized ways, and when we do it in front of people, He alone gets the glory for moving the mountain. I can't claim victory over this paperwork glitch. HE CAN. And He can claim that victory in front of everyone who joined us in prayer or even just read about what was going on this past Sunday night at 8:30.

That is how we are called to live our lives, dear friends. We have to throw the spotlight back on God. That is where it belongs. Our victories are due to His hands moving.

And we are so thankful to have the opportunity to see God toss mountain after mountain into the sea for the good of our family and the glory of His great and powerful name.

So we don't have the paper in hand, but we should get it this week. Please keep praying with us.

With love,
Baylor

Will You Pray With Us?

Well, I suppose it would not be an international adoption without a bump or two along the way. Sadly, we have hit a big one. Ten days ago, we received a letter in the mail from our immigration officer. It is the letter you do NOT want to get. It's called a Request For Evidence (RFE). Basically, it means that the immigration officer assigned to our family's case thinks something in our family's file is lacking and he has, therefore, requested further evidence before granting permission for our daughter to enter the country as a U.S. citizen.

At it's core, an RFE is a good thing because it is the United States doing its due diligence to ensure that children being placed for adoption do, in fact, need to be adopted. We fully support that. What is frustrating for us is that we feel like what immigration is asking for should have already been in our daughter's file. A clerical error, more or less...at least that is what we are hoping. I'm not going to go into any more detail as to what our officer is looking for, as that information is part of our daughter's story and not ours to share. But suffice it say that we are STUCK and a little nervous. Our case cannot move forward until our officer receives what he is asking for, and what he is asking for is a critically important piece of documentation.

An RFE is a HUGE setback because there is no definite time frame as to when it will be resolved. We were really hoping to get the documentation we need to move forward some time last week, but that did not happen.

So we are, once again, turning to you. We are asking you to pray with our family to help bring our daughter home. Each day our case is delayed is another day our daughter spends without a family. And that reality breaks our hearts.

Tonight at 8:30 CST we will be praying for the following things:

-That our daughter would feel safe and loved every single day
-That her caregivers would have extra energy and patience as they go about their work
-That we would receive the necessary documentation THIS WEEK in order to move our case forward

These are ENORMOUS prayers. Each one will take a miracle. I mean that. And I am certain it is no coincidence that our church's sermon this morning was all about connecting with God through prayer, how He knows what we need before we ask, how He is able to do all things. And the part that stuck with me the most: when we pray according to His will, it will be done. God's heart is to set the lonely in families, to be a Father to the fatherless. Scripture shouts these truths.

So will you pray with us? Will you pray and ask the Lord to move these mountains? If you can commit to joining us tonight, will you leave a comment below, or on Facebook or Instagram? We love to see how the Lord moves when we come together before Him.

Love,
Baylor

Wow. Just WOW.

Yesterday marked one whole month since we saw our girl's face for the very first time. It's been one whole month of being absolutely blown away by God's favor and faithfulness in the life of our family, one whole month of totally readjusting our plans, one whole month of trying to get our heads around the reality that we have a daughter who will be coming home this summer.

Referral day left us stunned, marveling at God's goodness and wondering how on earth we would be able to pull this off. And that is where we went wrong. WE are not going to pull this off. God is. A referral this soon is so beyond our capability to manage, and that reality is leading us to trust in our mighty God in a whole new way.

About a week after being matched, we came to you--our community-- with a need. A BIG one. We thought we had at least a year to get everything we needed saved in order to complete this adoption. God turned that timeline on its head, and we were left to trust Him to provide for us to bring our girl home. And He led us to you. We did something so completely out of our comfort zone, something I had promised myself I would never do. We asked you to prayerfully consider supporting us by donating directly to our adoption. My stomach was in knots when I published that post.

But then God use YOU to absolutely blow us away. In the last three weeks, YOU have donated nearly $9,000 to help us bring our daughter home.

I am speechless.

You are giving our family the most incredible gift there is. You are allowing us to become parents to this precious girl. You are using your resources, your hard earned resources, to say that you believe children deserve families. You are telling us that you love our daughter, that she matters to YOU, that her life is important and that she deserves a mom, a dad, a brother and a sister (a dog, too).

You are part of our story, of her story. And we will never be able to thank you enough. But I'll say it anyway: Thank you for loving our family. Thank you for believing in us and walking with us. Thank you for loving our daughter, for helping us get to her. Thank you for responding when God spoke to your heart. Thank you for being our village. Thank you.

Click HERE to see what you have done!

We love each of you so dearly.

Baylor