I'm BACK!!!!!!!

Hello dear friends (a/k/a the 5 readers I have left after my blog sabbatical). I will say I have good excuse as Minivan Mayhem was more of a task to tackle that I ever expected but let me say too the fruit is worth every ounce of gardening that took place. These ladies are rocking and rolling for Jesus and it is contagious to witness. They are soaking up the Word, pouring out in community and building each other up in ways I never dreamed. It has hit me lately that every ounce of spiritual growth I have ever had has been from the Word and the encouragement of other believers. It is not complicated to grow spiritually, it is just work. It is work to make it each week, work to be open and not give a hoot what anyone thinks of you once you are. It is work to get your kids, house, and life organized yet all the while keeping Christ as number one. It is work to say no to things and to rework your schedule, it is work to feel sick and tired yet reach out and serve. BUT OH HOW IT IS WORTH IT!!!!!

On another note, I thought I would share with you guys some very deep and theological thoughts from our new family of four since I have been gone for so long, just to make sure we are digging into the intense depths of life. So here we go........

GIRLS "NEED" a LOT of Shoes....For the love of Jesus, boys need church shoes and tennis shoes (who cares what color they are). Girls need shoes, tights, bows and white underwear just in case you can see through. It has been a bit exhausting dressing a girl, but somehow I am managing.

I have had NO problems feeling attached to my adopted daughter. I know many people want to ask that question but don't know how so I just wanted to go ahead and throw that out there just in case. I can give you many examples but here is a recent one just to show you a visual. We were at the park and I was talking to someone and had one eye on my kiddos. I noticed this little boy really bullying Mercy. I withheld the first time and let her "hold her own" but the next time he put both hands on my daughter's arms she started crying........well you know how that goes. You walk over telling yourself not to do all the things you are visualizing (like ripping the 5 year old's arms right off at his shoulders). I was very polite and gave him the look like "you touch my daughter one more time and I'll take you down little kid" and said "honey let's play nicely with each other, come here Mercy girl, Mommy will handle it". I thought to myself that day, you may have been hurt numerous times in that orphanage and it went unnoticed but now you have a MOMMY and I will take down anyone that even thinks about hurting you dear one. It felt SO good to rescue her and it made me think about how our Sovereign Father feels the exact same way about us.

Next in our deep theological discussion is cute things we are saying these days. Cross says "he ate it all" like when he is all done with his stickers. I told him today, "honey we say we used them all" but I kind of like it when they mess words up. He is turning 4 in a few short months and that is certainly a reality check that they DO grow up and that it IS sad. Onto Mercy girl, she L O V E S her preschool and her teachers. They (the teachers) have been in trouble for spoiling her rotten but who on earth could blame them. She says super cute things too like "Thomack the train" and "Mercy's birfday is all over". She is ALL caught up with her English and now knows 99 percent of her letters and their sounds. She is reaping the benefits of having an older brother.

Well, that about sums up our study for today. I promise to write more later but for now I am afraid if I don't hit "publish post" soon it may take another 4 months to write again. God has been and is being very good to the Bullock family. It is all grace, we don't deserve even the smallest of gifts. I pray that we never ever fix our eyes upon this earth, that somehow we always have our eyes on Heaven!

Because of Him,
K