Tommy da Twain..................

Cross got to go on a glorious adventure Saturday with the Bullock men and as you can see in the first picture, that crew included a very grandfatherish Granddaddy...............

They had a great time and I got a LOT of adoption paperwork done. I hated to miss a moment of mommy fun, but I think they did just fine without me! Cross buddy, your "cheese" and that stinkin hat are going to have my heart for as long as we both shall live!

Dream BIG.................

Hello Blog World! With a great big smile I can tell you that I am trucking along in the adoption paperwork extravaganza. I thank you so much for your prayers. After my break down the other night I got organized and made a "getting started" to-do list and put as much as I could fit on one sheet of paper in my oh so favorite list form and then decided I would just wait and make a new list next week once I actually got a few things marked off. It is hard when you have a husband, job, but most of all a child because you most certainly don't want to awake 4 months later from the paperwork fog and notice that your precious son has grown a foot and doesn't remember who mommy is or what memories mean. I am trying to make a very conscious effort to not obsess over the timing I have in mind and faithfully work when the door naturally opens, not when it has to be beaten down. I also wanted to ask for prayer in regards to a bump we hit today in regards to our health insurance proving that they will cover Mercy immediately. This is a BIG deal because it is a requirement by Ethiopia and there are some serious medical concerns (that I promise to discuss once we have processed them ourselves and I know that the insurance ordeal is going to be resolved). So ALL prayers will be appreciated. I feel like a selfish prayer friend so send me yours too because I actually do a much better job at having faith for you than I do for myself.

Which actually leads me to my point of posting. It is after 10 so I am thinking this may be short and sweet, but my desire is for your dreams (and mine) to be big (not at all short and sweet). I am a dreamer by nature. One of my top strengths in the Strength's Finders is futuristic so this dreaming thing is the most natural place for me to go. Obviously, this "strength" comes with a million weaknesses, but we aren't going to go over those details in this post. It is meant to be fun. One time in some much needed counseling during our last two years of "not so heaven like" reality, our pastor gave us some of the greatest counsel ever, to dream. He said don't ever get so defeated that you stop dreaming as a couple. Jeremy likes to dream just about as much as a snail likes a steady sprint, but he has been ever so willing for the sake of our sanity. But recently I feel like we have both stopped dreaming to some degree. So I want you to dream this week and I am going to dream with you in order to give my sweet man a break.....................

I dream of several rug rats running through a home that we own and picked out and painted and hung pictures and scriptures up everywhere! Oh and a backyard with a fence where Snicker girl can rome too.

I dream of a mini-van (yes you read that correctly) packed full of car seats, rocking out to some Veggie Tales and to the point where the base is bumping.

I dream of a kitchen that is larger than the size of my pinky nail where I can possibly toy with the idea of actually enjoying cooking, oh and GLORY hallelujah, it will have a GINORMOUS dishwasher to boot.

I dream of our finances putting us back in the position to bless instead of having to be blessed. I want to live radical, like really radical! I want to die and think, man, Jesus used us to rock the world for Him, what an honor that would be!

I want to fellowship with our Savior, by the day, by the minute. I want to FEEL Him more!

I want to walk more, be busy less, be my man's bestest friend and laugh and drink coffee with my dearest friends whom I selfishly want to be my next door neighbors.

I want to buy things for people, send kids to school in Africa, and have college funds set up for the ones we actually own.

I want our entire family to be radically sold out to Christ!

I want my friend's husband to go to work for a child trafficking organization because he is brilliant and I want them to step out!!

I want my other friends', plural, husbands to come home from war and never go back.

I want another friend to adopt sooner than later.

I want to be big and pregnant (well while we are dreaming, cute and pregnant) with a little red headed girl named Chapel Elizabeth Bullock.

I want Mercy to be totally healed and be Cross' bestest friend and I want to home school them in the same grade because she is NOT behind in the name of JESUS!!!!!!!

I want my parents to quit smoking. I want my cousin to quit doing things that are killing her body, mind, soul and spirit. I want Jesus to come back SOON!!!!!!

Yep, I for sure think dreaming is good for the soul! Feel free to comment dream or to talk your hubs into sitting down tonight and dreaming with you. Dream over email if he is 1,000 miles from home, but let's never stop dreaming and let's never doubt that Jesus has more than all we could ever ask, think, or imagine in store. Let's take Him at His Word and dream big, if we obey Him, He will trump them, guaranteed! Yes there will be hardships along the way, this is earth, not Heaven, but oh the saddest of days will come when we buy into the lie of doomed despair! Let's turn our dreams into prayers and just see what God might do, I dare ya! Have a great rest of the week sweet friends!

K

*ignore errors, I am hitting publish post and closing my eyes, it is 11 PM!

UPs and downs, HIGHS and lows...............

Hey gang, as I sit in front of this computer compiling a list of the 5,001 things I will need for the Dossier and then I scanned over the EIGHT page document I will need to fill out for just ONE grant, none of this is counting a glorious form called the I600a (which I have not even thought about), I am a bit paralyzed. I thought a plea for prayer would be a better use of my time right now. I am usually good at paperwork. It is like one big list and I LOVE lists, but this was more than I could handle, especially considering it is night and you all know just how well I do at night. In the strangest of ways, had I looked at this at 5 a.m. it may have felt like a good challenge, but at 9 p.m. it is making me want to cry. In addition to the paperwork we still need a miracle in the approximate amount of $28,425.00 NOW, that requires a LOT of faith! So here's my prayer this Labor Day Weekend Night, that I will TRUST JESUS, to get these docs done, to give me the time to do my part (a two year old, a part time job with an event a few weeks away and this thing I would like to somewhat keep called a LIFE are all making time a very valuable commodity). Please also pray that I will LEAN NOT ON MY OWN UNDERSTANDING in regards to the money. That is almost easy considering the amount, yet I keep trying to think of "ways" but they all include time and time is what I don't have. So just pray that I will trust Jesus. And finally, pray for me to trust Jesus and not carry guilt. If I think too much about all of this I will beat myself up for not locking myself in a room for hours and knocking this out. This paperwork to me represents a life that gets a modest piece of bread each day for her meal (singular). You get the point. I feel guilty for everyday that goes by and I don't have my paperwork in. I KNOW that God's grace will cover her until we can get to her, heck, long after we get to her for that matter, but pray that I FEEL that grace myself! Ok, thanks a ton, I have never been so thankful for your prayers. Have a great long weekend! Pray I can take it one step at a time!!!!

Kelly

Bullock Family UPdate.....................

Hey guys, just a little update from the Bullock home this Sunday evening! I am going in list form again as my brain slows by the second, but I wanted to give you a quick run down of our crew!

Jeremy: Is very handsome still and God is blessing his work and he is loving every minute of it. We are certainly adjusting to a crazy work schedule, but he has been such an awesome husband to work faithfully when needed but to know when enough is enough and shut that phone off and say "no" and spend q.t. with his fam!

Cross: Oh good gracious he says something or does something everyday that assures me he really is the cutest and smartest child on the face of the earth. I am sure all the moms out there know someone(s) similiar. Some recent cutestness has involed the need to wear a baseball hat to bed and he puts it back on first thing in the morning before carrying 5 (or 20) cars and a blanket or two out into the hall to announce his morning arrival. A baseball hat and pj's is JUST about the cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. Cute sayings are: Tommy da twain (for Thomas) and I help you (instead of will you help me) and then all kinds of ABC cuteness and smartness, but I will spare the bragging! We have a solid 6 months of a strict diet before we can start adding things back in, but his tummy is improving each week.

Snick: Well, let's just say she IS alive. She is so low on the totum pole that it is truly sad and she acts out and whines about EVERYTHING! I did give her a walk Saturday without Cross so we could go a little faster than a slow snail, but I am praying it will not the be last one in 2010. The girl needs her exercise for lots of reasons.

Kelly: Well, Jesus rocked my world this weekend. I am not allowed to share details, but let's just say that the adoption is ON thanks to some very dear and generous friends!!!!!!!!!! We are having our first homestudy meeting on Wednesday, we are mailing out our application in the morning, and we are about to be full throttle in Dossier (or Dozzier as I called it and please laugh with me and not at me, I'm from TN). So that leads me to our next family member.....................

Mercy: Mercy is the name the Lord gave us several months back for our one-day to be adopted little girl. We have been praying for her this entire year, long before we even knew she was Ethiopian. We have not been offically matched so we are still praying for the Lord to seal that deal and for us to be able to go and get her sooner rather than later. I will give way more detail when the match is complete and if I am permitted will post a million pics as well, but as for now, just pray pray pray, please! She is beautiful and I am praying the Lord will bring beauty from ashes in her precious life! Her life verse is Psalm 23:6 "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all of the days of my life." That is most certainly our prayer for her!

So as you can tell, this is certainly an UPdate! Life is moving forward, Jesus is rocking our worlds in a million and one ways. I feel like screaming "I knew He was faithful, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!" In regards to the adoption and a timeline we have none at the moment, but God has given us a sense of urgency at least on our part not to slow down, not to put this to the side, to be ready for Him to blow open any and all doors. With that said, we know we need to start preparing for each and every step of this process. With a tall bill of approximately $30,000 we are going to go ahead and start setting aside money for our travel to Ethiopia. If God does open a quick door I am assuming it will be vital that we buy our plane tickets on the spot so we just want to be as ready as we can be! Jeremy also needs shots and a passport and that alone is over $600. We are posting a "donate" button for anyone who wants to support us in this effort. Please know that every penny will be a blessing and no "donation" is too big or too small. A dear friend gave me $25 and you have no idea how much that increased my faith! We are certain that God is going to continue to overwhelm us with His grace to bring Mercy home. We are beyond thankful for you guys and your prayers for us over these past few years and the awesome months to come! We'll keep you posted, promise!!!!!!

J and K

Night Night

Hello Blog World, rarely will you catch me doing much of anything after say, 8:00 p.m., but tonight I am wide awake for several reasons. One being because my sweet man has gone to a football game and it is a very odd feeling being all alone and the television being off, but two I think I am VERY in love with Jesus this evening and just had to get on and share.

God has obviously taken the Bullocks through the ringer these past few years and some days I am truly amazed that I have had the grace to live through it and even still tell about it. I was thinking today as my sweet man told me that TWO contracts were a no-go, I have to trust God, I have to believe Him, not my circumstances. A friend told me yesterday about a message involving the mid-night hour and how many of us are sitting on 11:59. I also heard the most amazing quote of my entire life yesterday at church, "Our destiny will be made up of a collective number of yes's to God". WOW, if that one doesn't blow you away I think you might just be stuck. I kept thinking to myself, THANK GOODNESS that a few times along this ride we have said "yes" and a million times along this ride we have said "no" to the opposite voice speaking into our ear.

I also have tons of friends and family on my mind right now, I know their circumstances, I desperately pray that they will get to their God given destiny by saying yes. Maybe their yes is to adoption or a no to abortion. Maybe their yes is to stay in rehab or to quit smoking or to finalize a plan to clean up their house. Maybe your yes is to stay married to your man or to STOP worrying about finances and trust Jesus (oh wait that's mine). Maybe your yes is to quit your job, sell your house, or call the Hope Pregnancy Center and become a volunteer. A got an email today about a gal who went on our trip who said yes to moving to Ethiopia to work in the trash dump, in NOVEMBER. How's that for a destiny rocker. She is a single gal and I already have a VERY good looking African man in my head wondering what IF that is going to be her man. Just think, she said yes to a trip, then a yes to fight satan long enough to actually get her butt on the plane to the trip, even on the plane ride there she said she had NO CLUE what God wanted her to do with her life! :) Oh, I love our Jesus.

For me personally, I have said yes this past two years to a job taking and a job quitting, a church change, a sermon series about Toxic Thoughts in a moment where my mind was full of them. I have said NO to drinking, smoking, but a not so good yes to cussing and sometimes WAY too much of it. All my Jesus following yes's over the past 7 years have brought me to blessings that far out weighed my wildest of dreams and all my disobedience or even complacency to say yes to a quiet time have brought me pain. Yes to an alone weekend after losing a baby, life changing. No to tearing down my man in the midst of some anger and terrible PMS, didn't make my life any better let's just say that.

So I leave you with this, say yes to whatever the heck it is He is calling you to do or not to do today. Don't worry about the list of yes's you will need to fulfill your destiny, just take it one yes at a time. Don't worry about the pain or pride you will have to endure or lay down, just trust that He is worth it. Don't compare your life to anyone else's. Just say yes to your call and leave their yes's to themselves. You know what He is calling YOU to do and it will be worth it let me tell ya! It could be as simple as doing the laundry or apologizing to your man. It could be as massive as selling all of your possessions or taking a MAJOR risk, but the options really are simple, glorious God-designed destiny, or well, crap! I'm just saying! Ok, my man is here! I love you guys tons! I am too tired to proof so give me lots of grace!

K

Hello Blog World

So I should totally be sleeping right now because each day by 2:00 p.m. I feel like I could fall asleep standing up, but I could not resist saying a quick (ok quick for me) hello this evening! I have a great confession to make and that is I have officially sold out and joined Facebook and my blog routine is all in a mess. I feel so pulled, but I am bound and determined that I am a Blogger first and a Facebooker second, not counting follower of Jesus, awesome loving wife, phenomenal mother, great event planner, and friend, daughter, sister, and aunt. POINT proven for my next announcement, I am officially signing off of "Come with me to Ethiopia". I just can't wrap my boxed brain around keeping up with all of this and from the list above it doesn't seem like a wise time choice as you can tell. SO, from now on we can sit tight here on Bullock Family AND still possibly make certain that we go back to Ethiopia all the same.

I have pondered how on earth I could tell you guys this news, but it seems that telling is really the only route possible. WE ARE GOING TO ADOPT A BABY GIRL FROM ETHIOPIA. Now cheer, cheer! I can hear you!!!!!!!! When I say baby girl, I really mean toddler girl (hopefully), that is just how we southern mama's speak. Tonight I am super excited yet beyond curious about how the Lord is going to perform the 1 million financial miracles that will be needed along the way. God has already done several cool things this past week and we are just faithfully trucking through our paperwork and getting ready to mail out packets as soon as the funds roll in. Jeremy and I are both beyond over the desire to ask people for one more penny, but we have experienced the joys of giving over and over and the Lord is showing us that "bringing home a baby" thrills everyone involved so we are going to humble ourselves again and just let God work! He may work through Jeremy's job or grants or friends and family or random coins found in the mouth of a fish. Ok, so probably not that, but I just read that story in the Bible the other day and my chin dropped and I remembered that God is BIG. Ok, so that's that! I love you guys and I can hardly stand holding in even the smallest bit of news so you can imagine I have been busting at the seems about this. God will confirm through the next few months if we have heard Him correctly or not, but as for now we have more peace moving forward and no peace sitting still. We thank you for your prayers, your celebration and most certainly, if God lays it on your heart to give of your finances to save a life in Ethiopia we will not turn you down. I just kept thinking the entire time I was there what I would do if that were Cross sitting in that orphanage, getting only bread for a meal and no one giving him one million kisses at night. I would beg, plead, work, and take out a loan the size of Egypt if that was what it took to bring him home. I feel like we have a daughter over there, Mercy will be her name, and Cross will be her BIG brother, and so why wouldn't I do the same for her.

God has crazy plans for us all. IF we will in fact surrender our own. I am getting a glimpse of His plan and He is making me smile. He hated any pain that we have had to endure these past few years, but He knew all along where He was leading. He is writing a life story for me that never in a million years could I have dreamt, but let me promise you this, He wants to do the same for you. Every time you face a fork in the road tell yourself that the narrow road leads to a blessing. His ways works guys, just you wait and see!

K, a/k/a Mommy again to be!

Cross

Hello Sweet Friends! Obviously from the title of the last post and the length of time in between these two I am thinking I need to spend some more time stopping and smelling the roses. My sweet son waived good-bye to us tonight as we dropped him off at his BB's and Granddaddy's for a MUCH needed hot date with the hubs. When you have no clue where to begin as a couple alone on a Saturday night that is a bad sign. We had a wonderful night together and I think smelling the roses is going to happen much more frequently here at the Bullock home! I also wanted to share with you guys some oh so sweet Cross moments from the past few months. He is talking up a storm and just flourishing as a little boy. We did find out some not so great news this past week, Cross has some horrible food allergies that have got to be addressed. Please pray for me over the next few weeks as we come up with a game plan which will most certainly mean more work for all of us, but also a whole lot of "no's" for my sweet boy. Pray that God gives me some James 1:5 wisdom in the areas of what and how to do everything in my power to get my little man back up to speed before we start reintroducing foods and figuring out just what it is that is an absolute NO. Ok, you guys have a glorious week. I personally am in great need of some Jesus tomorrow after a week of doing childcare and not being able to make it to service. Also, please be praying for my sweet Daddy. He had another scare this week and has GOT to stop smoking. Let's pray him up, he has probably been smoking for 50+ years so he needs a Jesus size miracle, but He is so good at those!

Ok, so here we go, Random Cute Things Cross Says/Does That I Want to Remember.........

1. No, go dis way. He is VERY bossy while you are driving.
2. Tank you daddy, tank you mommy. I can't even type it how he really says it. It is almost more like dankdo, but it is SO cute. I can always tell he has plenty of food and sleep when he says this. It is so sweet to see your manner's training pay off!
3. Hi, HI, Cross is the personal greeter everywhere we go. You should see him at Chick-fil-a. He feels VERY at home there and welcomes each and every customer that enters the door. He doesn't quiet know how to carry on a conversation so he just starts talking, "The mon mower, and the tractor, and the truck, and the mon mower."
4. Max (his buddy at school) is always cwying. That is another random conversation peace that frequents our home.
5. I also love seeing his necked little butt running back and forth to the potty and the way he slams down the toilet lid, all boy, Jeremy grins with proud approval, I shake with fear.
6. A BIG no-no. When he sees things that he has touched and suffered the consequences (please know I am certain 10 warnings were in between) he says they are a BIG no-no.
7. "W" say it out loud, now hear Cross saying "double y". So sticking cute. He changed a week or so to "double x". Those moments almost send me over the edge with his cuteness!
8. And lastly, poooooooooooooooor Snick. She gets bossed, chased, and the ball taken away often. She keeps her ears up most of the day. I wonder what goes through her head on days when we leave. THANK YOU JESUS FOR GIVING ME A DAY OF REST FROM THAT CHILD. HE IS A BIT TOO HYPER, EVEN FOR ME!