NOW What?????

Dear Friends and Family,

Now that you have all had the awesome blessing of "meeting" our sweet Mercy girl, I wanted to get on and give everyone a MUCH needed update. That step (court) had to be taken before we could honestly breathe, much less think too far ahead, so thank you for bearing with my silence.

To begin, the obvious question, What Happens Next? Our next step includes waiting on 3 very important documents (one of which includes a birth certificate) and to be given what is called an Embassy Date. To be honest I am really not sure what all that involves other than the fact that once we have that we can fly our sweet baby girl HOME! We are still praying that it will be February but we have no guarantee. J and I are both so blessed to work at places where they love us and understand that we may have to drop everything and leave somewhat last minute so all is well in that area and obviously our sweet boy has more grandparents and family friends than he knows what to do with, he'll be JUST fine, possibly a bit spoiled rotten but nothing less would be expected. So that's the skinny on the "next step". Sidenote-I will be done working at Hope once we go to Ethiopia so I will officially be a full-time mom when we return which takes away large quantities of stress on my part. Thank you JESUS for this grace!

Another huge question is, HOW ARE YOU GUYS DOING ON FUNDS?? Well, we have passed halfway, over $15,000 raised which is a total miracle. We are waiting to hear from 2grants and if we were approved for both grants (for the full amounts possible to be dispersed) we would be able to pay our agency in full. You can certainly imagine how much we are praying these two grants will both come through. If they don't I have NO plan B so pray for me to trust Jesus regardless.
*I found out after I wrote this that we did NOT get one of the grants so please keep praying, that was $4,500 stamped NO!
We ARE also still in need of funds for our last trip. We are looking at around $4,000 in plane tickets alone (including a sweet girl's ticket to come home) and that is not counting room and board. All of that leads me to my next point before I stay here too long and panic.

T-shirts, Beads and Earrings- God has been SO gracious and we have sold close to 5- HUNDRED beads. I am still in shock with that as well. We do have about 40 or so more (and probably 20 earrings as well) and we certainly are praying those last few sell. So if you wanted some beads and/or earrings and want to stock up for a few Birthday presents or the PERFECT Mother's Day presents, by all means email away. Another huge blessing some friends have done is to "take a bag of ten" and sell them to your friends and family. I have two more bags up for grabs if you are local and want to try to sell some to your circle of influence that would be GREAT! Also the t-shirts, are SO stinkin cute! If you have a shirt already please comment and let everyone know that they really are THAT soft and that I am not exagerating. The kid ones are possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life so please please buy one for every sweet lady you know. (See the post below for the gray Mercy T.) I am going to make the final order for the t's on Friday the 21st of January because I have to make sure I have them back in time to mail them out for the airport party (more details to come for that, it will certainly be it's own post). Also, if you have ordered a t-shirt and have not received it yet I promise I will have them to you guys by the end of the month. I am just trying to do one last bulk order to get the best price.

Beads $25
Earrings $15
Set $35
T-Shirts $20
bullockfamily77@gmail.com

Another thing that I promise to talk about in much more detail in the future is toddler attachment. We certainly had some LARGE wake up calls over the first trip in regards to attachment so I promise to offer all the details I can. We may be doing some things that look crazy to the general public but we promise there is a "why" and we will share the why, who, what, when, where and how. When that time comes what we will need more than anything will be prayers for tons of wisdom. Our plans change daily now, I can't imagine what it will look like once she gets here, but know regardless that our deepest desire is to do what is best for Mercy (and Cross and my sanity just to be totally honest).

Rooms and Cross- So many of you have asked about our sweet guy and I want you to know that I can see God's grace all over that situation for certain. I have worried that we would just talk talk talk and he would eventually decide that she was make believe, but with the bed up it is certainly becoming more real. They are sharing a room for lots of reasons so I promise to share some pics of their sweet matching beds. Cross opened a drawer the other day and there was a pink brush in it from my shower and he said, "that's Mercy's brush" with NO prompting. That was very encouraging for me. We are trying to think through every detail of his transition once we return as well so pray pray pray that we are faithful and that he feels secure in our love regardless of all the changes. I am also working hard at some back tracking "parent with multiples in mind" so I am trying to set things up so that we will have some sort of order and structure when we return so that everyone will kind of know what to expect out of life! Just PRAY! I am asking humbly because we are going to need it like never before.

And finally, THANK YOU!!!!!!!! Where on earth and how on earth could I begin to say thank you, for believing, praying, giving, buying, encouraging, and praising Jesus along the way! We love you dearly!

J and K