Well....today was the day. The day we found out if we got accepted into the agency we REALLY wanted. The agency that interviews 200 couples a month and only accepts 6 a month. Like I told you before in my last post, we were totally doubting. 200 out of 6...I mean...come on...the odds are NOT in our favor.
I probably checked my email 75 times today. So anxious. Couldn't think about much of anything else.
2:00 in the afternoon comes. I check it again (10 minutes after the last time I checked it) There it was...that email that had been plaguing my thoughts all day long. Except the email was the total opposite of what I thought it was going to be. The title of the email explains it all. "Your Angel Adoption Acceptance" Did you SEE that?????? We have been ACCEPTED!!!! AHHH!! We are SO excited we can hardly stand it!! Tears immediately formed in Richard and mine's eyes. We couldn't believe it. We were simply amazed.
God is so amazing. He's opening doors. We are praising Him.
I'll be honest...too excited to even come up with anything else to write at the moment. So this is going to have to be it for right now.
Thank you all for praying! Don't stop now!
Love,
The Nuzum's
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
A Tiny Update For You!
Not a whole lot going on to update you with right at the moment. Before, I told you that we had two agencies we were looking at and we have already visited with one. Well the SECOND agency is the one that we REALLY want.
Today we had a phone interview with the second agency. It seemed to go well. We will know on THURSDAY if we have been accepted into their program! Here's the thing.....they have about 200 couples apply every MONTH. They only accept SIX couples every month, and right now they only have 2 spots available. So we are thinking...yeah right...we have NO chance and then doubt after doubt crept in and we had already given up. And then we stopped ourselves with all our doubting and sat there and prayed together. We simply just prayed for faith. God is bigger than our circumstances, our doubts, and our impossible situation. If this isn't the agency God wants for us (but we really hope it is) then there is obviously a better option right around the corner. We just need to TRUST.
So if you are out there reading this today, please pray for us. Pray that we continue to trust in the Lord. Pray that if this the way it's supposed to be that it be very clear to us.
Today we had a phone interview with the second agency. It seemed to go well. We will know on THURSDAY if we have been accepted into their program! Here's the thing.....they have about 200 couples apply every MONTH. They only accept SIX couples every month, and right now they only have 2 spots available. So we are thinking...yeah right...we have NO chance and then doubt after doubt crept in and we had already given up. And then we stopped ourselves with all our doubting and sat there and prayed together. We simply just prayed for faith. God is bigger than our circumstances, our doubts, and our impossible situation. If this isn't the agency God wants for us (but we really hope it is) then there is obviously a better option right around the corner. We just need to TRUST.
So if you are out there reading this today, please pray for us. Pray that we continue to trust in the Lord. Pray that if this the way it's supposed to be that it be very clear to us.
Monday, February 18, 2013
First of MANY prayer requests!!!
Hey everyone!! First of all..I am SO SORRY that this blog post is so LONG winded. Once I started I just couldn't stop, so hang in there til the end! ha ha
As I said in the first blog post, we are trying to settle down on an agency. We have met with an agency in Overland Park, Ks last Monday called "Adoption and Beyond". We liked how the meeting went for the most part. We had talked it over and pretty much decided that this is the agency we are going to go with. MAINLY because the cost was some of the lowest we had seen for domestic infant adoptions. The cost was $18,000 up to $22,000. The only CONS we had with this agency was that the average time frame for a completed adoption was a little longer than what we had hoped for. Another thing that I found out today was that they focus mainly placing an infant with the same race as the adoptive parents. That's not necessarily what we are looking for. We don't care what the skin color of this amazingly ADORABLE baby is going to be! But that being said...in our minds we had settled on this agency because the price was a little lower than what we had found and it was close and convenient for us.
So today as I am just playing around on the computer I start doing some research of other agencies just for the fun of it. I literally STUMBLE across this certain agency and start looking into it. I INSTANTLY fell in love with it!! It is everything we want AND it's even CHEAPER than the first agency!! So I am just looking around this website and find that they NOW have 2 open spots available. So what do I do? I hit the apply button and start filling out the lengthy application. After I hit the send button a message pops up saying that once it is reviewed they will send out an email to let us know if they think we are a good fit for this company and to say that we can move forward in setting up a meeting with them.
An hour later.......an email comes in saying they would love to have an appointment with us over the phone! This appointment is going to determine whether or not they will accept us into the program and give us one of those two open spots.
WHEW!!! Now to the point. PRAY. Please pray that if this is the agency God wants us to use then the door be opened and it be VERY clear. If this is not God's plan for us then please PRAY that the door will be shut very fast. I usually try not to get to excited very quickly but it's kind of hard not to. How can you not be excited when you are thinking about one of these agencies is going to be our guide to holding our amazing and precious baby!?!?! I just want it to be clear which one is God's way for us. So thank you in advance for all the prayers lifted up!
Love,
The Nuzum's :)
As I said in the first blog post, we are trying to settle down on an agency. We have met with an agency in Overland Park, Ks last Monday called "Adoption and Beyond". We liked how the meeting went for the most part. We had talked it over and pretty much decided that this is the agency we are going to go with. MAINLY because the cost was some of the lowest we had seen for domestic infant adoptions. The cost was $18,000 up to $22,000. The only CONS we had with this agency was that the average time frame for a completed adoption was a little longer than what we had hoped for. Another thing that I found out today was that they focus mainly placing an infant with the same race as the adoptive parents. That's not necessarily what we are looking for. We don't care what the skin color of this amazingly ADORABLE baby is going to be! But that being said...in our minds we had settled on this agency because the price was a little lower than what we had found and it was close and convenient for us.
So today as I am just playing around on the computer I start doing some research of other agencies just for the fun of it. I literally STUMBLE across this certain agency and start looking into it. I INSTANTLY fell in love with it!! It is everything we want AND it's even CHEAPER than the first agency!! So I am just looking around this website and find that they NOW have 2 open spots available. So what do I do? I hit the apply button and start filling out the lengthy application. After I hit the send button a message pops up saying that once it is reviewed they will send out an email to let us know if they think we are a good fit for this company and to say that we can move forward in setting up a meeting with them.
An hour later.......an email comes in saying they would love to have an appointment with us over the phone! This appointment is going to determine whether or not they will accept us into the program and give us one of those two open spots.
WHEW!!! Now to the point. PRAY. Please pray that if this is the agency God wants us to use then the door be opened and it be VERY clear. If this is not God's plan for us then please PRAY that the door will be shut very fast. I usually try not to get to excited very quickly but it's kind of hard not to. How can you not be excited when you are thinking about one of these agencies is going to be our guide to holding our amazing and precious baby!?!?! I just want it to be clear which one is God's way for us. So thank you in advance for all the prayers lifted up!
Love,
The Nuzum's :)
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
We have an announcement!!
This is a letter that Richard and I have just sent out to our family:
Hey all!!
Richard and I have been talking and praying for sometime now, and I think we are FINALLY ready to begin this next ADVENTURE in our lives and we want you ALL to be a part of it!! We are very excited to share this with all of you and we want YOU to be excited too! I know you are thinking "get on with it already!!" So here it is....our big news....our next big adventure. Richard and I have decided to pursue ADOPTION!! This has been on our hearts every since the day we were married. We knew that no matter how many (if any) children we had on our own that we STILL wanted to adopt.
I will be honest with you all about a couple of things. FIRST...this is equally terrifying as it is exciting. SECOND I have been very hesitant to share this with anybody. Why you ask? Well, we are SO early in this whole process (and when I say early, I mean EARLY) that I'm kind of afraid of failing before we get started. I didn't want to tell everybody so early on, and this all ending up not working out. Then we would have to go back and tell everybody again...oops sorry never mind!! However...my mind has been changed. First by my husband who keeps begging me to just get this all out in the open. Second, I have been following the blog of an amazing couple who has just finalized the adoption of their beautiful baby and they shared some reasons for THEM telling people so early on in the process. Listening to them tell their story has got me so excited that I have decided to let everybody else in on this excitement.
First of all we just want to say that we are SO excited about this whole idea that we can hardly stand it! Which is one major reason we are telling you all right now...because we just can't hold it in any longer!! Another Reason we are telling you so early on is because we know what an amazing and scary journey this will be and we can use all the prayers & support possible!
Some people have raised the questions, "Why adoption?", "Can you not have any children on your own?" So why adoption you ask? Richard and I have always had the desire to adopt. The only thing I can say is that this desire has to be from God. I think God has instilled in me this desire since the day he created me. Growing up as a child I remember that I have always had a big heart for the "under dog" the one who is less fortunate than myself, the one who nobody else ever gave a second glance towards. As I got older I went on several mission trips to a third world country. Seeing all those children without parents, mothers trying to GIVE their babies away to the Americans...I knew right then that I was meant to adopt. And for God in His perfect design to pair me up with a wonderful Christian husband who feels the same way about adoption is just icing on the cake!
"Can you not have any children on your own?" Well, to be honest, I don't know. I CAN tell you this. Richard and I have been married for 3 almost 4 years and we don't have any children yet :) But I'm not worried about it. I don't feel the need to go to the doctor for all that infertility testing business. If God wants me to have biological children...then I will. If God chooses not to bless us with biological children, then we are okay with that.
Some of the "equally terrifying" part of this process is the financial part. Turns out children are really expensive!! (ha-ha) Through all the research we have done, we have found that with the kind of adoption we want to do (domestic infant of any gender and of any race) the average cost is $25,000. WOW!! I know!! $25,000 is TERRIFYING!! How are we going to do this? We obviously don't have $25,000 in spare change just laying around. We are trusting that if we are meant to adopt, then God is going to make it happen. We are going to pray, fundraise, pray, save every penny, pray, cut other costs as much as we can, did I mention pray?? Because that is how all this is going to happen. We are putting God at the forefront of this adoption. We want God to get ALL the glory through this process. And we want everybody on the outside to SEE God working in our impossible situation. Which is another reason we are telling you all so early. We want God to get the glory in EVERY STEP forward in this adoption process.
Right now Richard and I are trying to settle down on an adoption agency out of a couple that we like, then after we do that, the REAL fun begins. We are so excited!!! We want to you be involved and equally excited in this process. We want you to share the excitement in the ups and we want you share the painful tears in the downs.
We love you all. We invite you to take part in this process. We pray that all involved will see how magnificent God is. We thank you now for all the prayer support you will be giving us. We will keep you updated! Thank you all for being so amazing!!
Love always
Richard and Amber Nuzum,
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