Hey everybody! Well our 31 gift fundraiser put on by Jerri James is now over. And it raised $400 dollars!! That was so sweet of her to volunteer her hard earned money and time to help us with the adoption. We can't think everyone enough for the huge amount of support that has been given to us.
SO...here's the big news now! Our case worker got a hold of me today wanting to set up our home study appointment. It's going to be August 26th (Monday). That is only 12 days away!!!! Goodness!!! I instantly got nervous when we set the date. So much to do! You would think that knowing this was appointment was coming that we would be getting the house ready bit by bit so we wouldn't have to rush. I mean...that would be the responsible thing to do right??? Haha. Those who know me laugh because every one knows that I am the queen of procrastinators. I work well under pressure. I like it. Ha! So here we are...12 days away from meeting with the woman who has our future in her hands. The one who says yes you are capable of raising a child or no you are crazy, no child for you. haha.
So, this is our plea. Pray!! Pray for us! Pray for our case worker Rachel. Pray that she sees us as fit to parent a child. Pray that we won't be nervous. Pray we will continue to trust God through this whole process. Ultimately HE is the one who has our future in His hands. Not Rachel.
We also got word today that another mother has our profile. As you know...all it takes is one mother to choose us to parent her child, and we know of two mothers that have our profile. Please pray for those mothers. Can you imagine the decisions she is trying to make right now?? How hard this must be for them. Pray for peace for these two women.
We are so excited! We are slowly getting closer day by day!
We love you all
The Nuzum's
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Belyn
This post is dedicated to my ADORABLE and BEAUTIFUL new cousin Belyn! I am SO excited to welcome her to our family. My uncle and aunt (Brent and Christi) have been going through the process of adopting Belyn from Ethiopia and TODAY (Wednesday) they have left to go get her and bring her home!!!!!!! I am so happy for them and can feel their excitement all the way from here. This sweet little girl's life will never be the same now. She now has a forever family that will love her unconditionally. She will be home very soon and I can't even imagine the feelings that Brent and Christi are feeling right now as they are about to see their daughter in this orphanage for the last time and will get to bring her home! I thank God that He has brought this all together and I know that He has been glorified and honored in this process.
As for us, we have FINALLY finished the mountains of paperwork that we had to complete in order to turn our home study notebook in. It is now getting processed and we will be expecting a call from our case worker so we can set up a time for them to come to our house and interview us and inspect our house. There was SO much to fill out in this home study notebook that it was almost overwhelming, but you just have to breath and push through it. I'm not going to lie...it almost got to the point of being annoying having to fill out all this stuff. I just wanted it to be done so we could move on! HaHa! So after we get approved by our case worker we just wait. I'm dreading that part...waiting.... It could be short...but it could also be VERY long.
I know I have said this in our previous blog post, but we have raised and been given a little over $10,000. We are needing around 4 to 5 thousand more. My mom and my grandma held a garden party fundraiser recently to raise money for this adoption. They both worked VERY hard to make it a success and we raised around $800 dollars!! We were so thankful to them for their sacrifice of their time and money to make it a success.
We also have a friend, Jerri James who is a 31 Gift consultant. They have so many cute things to buy. Jerri has been so awesome to us. She is throwing a fundraiser with her profits going to our adoption. I can't thank her enough for being so giving. So everybody go check it out!! Buy some awesome things for yourself or for gifts and in turn help us get closer to the reaching our goal!!! LOVE this idea.
Other than that, not a whole lot going on right now, just waiting. We do know that one mother has our profile. One is obviously not very many, but it only takes one mother to choose us to raise her child. So we pray. We pray for whoever this woman is. Pray that she has the courage to make the decision to choose life for her baby. Give her the courage for the decisions that she will have to be making. It has got to be the hardest decision of a life time.
Anyways...we love you all. We are excited. We thank God for all of you who read, who support, who pray for us. We will keep you posted!!
love you all
The Nuzum's :)
Monday, May 20, 2013
BLOWN AWAY
Hey all you out there!! I know it's been a while since I have posted anything...but I didn't have anything to say until now! :)
Just filling you all in with what is going on right now! Well...this past weekend a very dear friend of ours Sharen Cunningham hosted and put on a yard sale with the proceeds going toward our adoption. That was so incredibly sweet of her and we can NOT thank her enough. So many of you out there donated items to sell and it wouldn't have been possible without all of you..so thank you. Then of course the people who came out and BOUGHT stuff (especially those who worked the yard sale haha)..thank you thank you. We had kind of set a goal in our heads for the yard sale. We thought it would be really awesome if we reached $1,000. And we thought we had set a pretty good goal...because really....$1,000 for a yard sale is A LOT and we knew it could be hard to reach. Okay...well let me just tell you what our God did this past weekend. He blessed that yard sale 3 times over than what we ever imagined. Our total proceeds from the yard sale turned out to be $3,900.!!!!! (we round it up to $4,000 because it's close enough for me! ha) I mean SERIOUSLY....FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS for a YARD SALE????? Who knew that was even possible? God has proven time and time again to me how little my faith is. I thought I had some pretty good faith for setting a goal of $1,000. God you are worthy to be praised and you never cease to amaze me. Thank you for choosing to bless this adoption thus far. I pray that you are getting all the glory and that everyone is seeing that you are real and totally involved.
Okay, so we have raised right at $10,000 for this adoption! Not gunna lie...that hasn't even began to sink in yet. In only a few short months we have raised $10,000!! (sorry I have to keep repeating it until it feels real) That is UNBELIEVABLE and I am completely blown away. We only have about 3 to 5 thousand more to go. How amazing! Which brings me to my next paragraph :)
We are doing another fundraiser so bear with us!! ha ha. Richard and I are selling T-shirts to help us get a little closer to our final money goal. I will put a picture below to show you what they look like. They are $18.00 each. We have a standard t shirt and then we have a cute fitted style but I will warn you that the fitted shirts run pretty small. Just to give you how the sizes are in the standard t shirt. I (amber) am wearing the Extra Large and it fits me perfectly. Richard is wearing the Large and it fits him perfectly. If ANYBODY would like a t-shirt you can comment on here...on face book...in person...haha...just let me know some how. (the picture below is an example of the fitted style)
I love you all. All the followers, friends, family, supporters. Couldn't do this without a single one of you helping to make this happen. We could never repay you for all that you have done. I pray God will bless you ten times over that what you have blessed us.
Love you all
The Nuzums :)
Just filling you all in with what is going on right now! Well...this past weekend a very dear friend of ours Sharen Cunningham hosted and put on a yard sale with the proceeds going toward our adoption. That was so incredibly sweet of her and we can NOT thank her enough. So many of you out there donated items to sell and it wouldn't have been possible without all of you..so thank you. Then of course the people who came out and BOUGHT stuff (especially those who worked the yard sale haha)..thank you thank you. We had kind of set a goal in our heads for the yard sale. We thought it would be really awesome if we reached $1,000. And we thought we had set a pretty good goal...because really....$1,000 for a yard sale is A LOT and we knew it could be hard to reach. Okay...well let me just tell you what our God did this past weekend. He blessed that yard sale 3 times over than what we ever imagined. Our total proceeds from the yard sale turned out to be $3,900.!!!!! (we round it up to $4,000 because it's close enough for me! ha) I mean SERIOUSLY....FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS for a YARD SALE????? Who knew that was even possible? God has proven time and time again to me how little my faith is. I thought I had some pretty good faith for setting a goal of $1,000. God you are worthy to be praised and you never cease to amaze me. Thank you for choosing to bless this adoption thus far. I pray that you are getting all the glory and that everyone is seeing that you are real and totally involved.
Okay, so we have raised right at $10,000 for this adoption! Not gunna lie...that hasn't even began to sink in yet. In only a few short months we have raised $10,000!! (sorry I have to keep repeating it until it feels real) That is UNBELIEVABLE and I am completely blown away. We only have about 3 to 5 thousand more to go. How amazing! Which brings me to my next paragraph :)
We are doing another fundraiser so bear with us!! ha ha. Richard and I are selling T-shirts to help us get a little closer to our final money goal. I will put a picture below to show you what they look like. They are $18.00 each. We have a standard t shirt and then we have a cute fitted style but I will warn you that the fitted shirts run pretty small. Just to give you how the sizes are in the standard t shirt. I (amber) am wearing the Extra Large and it fits me perfectly. Richard is wearing the Large and it fits him perfectly. If ANYBODY would like a t-shirt you can comment on here...on face book...in person...haha...just let me know some how. (the picture below is an example of the fitted style)
I love you all. All the followers, friends, family, supporters. Couldn't do this without a single one of you helping to make this happen. We could never repay you for all that you have done. I pray God will bless you ten times over that what you have blessed us.
Love you all
The Nuzums :)
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Patience!
Not a whole lot to give you all today, but I will just update the little that I can. :)
What we are doing right now is still...paperwork paperwork paperwork!!!! There is so much to fill out it is almost overwhelming! There is lots to do like: fill out form after form, criminal background checks, physicals, etc. So after we finish up this paperwork we will turn it in and then somebody will come to our house to complete our home study and tell us if we passed or not. Other than that...not a whole lot going on.
On a more exciting note: Richard and I have started getting stuff ready for the baby room, because once everything is complete we could get a call any day. Since we won't know the gender we have decided to do a neutral theme. We are going with a lot of different browns, greens, safari type colors. Now that we have started decorating the baby room a little, we both find ourselves just going to the room and staring at it! We are SO excited! HOWEVER....it is making it a lot harder to have patience!! Now that we are getting ready...we just want this precious baby NOW!!! :)
We just want to keep giving God all the glory for all that has been done! The support, the amazing deals we have found on baby furniture, and everything in this entire process!
Check out some pics of the baby room!!
What we are doing right now is still...paperwork paperwork paperwork!!!! There is so much to fill out it is almost overwhelming! There is lots to do like: fill out form after form, criminal background checks, physicals, etc. So after we finish up this paperwork we will turn it in and then somebody will come to our house to complete our home study and tell us if we passed or not. Other than that...not a whole lot going on.
On a more exciting note: Richard and I have started getting stuff ready for the baby room, because once everything is complete we could get a call any day. Since we won't know the gender we have decided to do a neutral theme. We are going with a lot of different browns, greens, safari type colors. Now that we have started decorating the baby room a little, we both find ourselves just going to the room and staring at it! We are SO excited! HOWEVER....it is making it a lot harder to have patience!! Now that we are getting ready...we just want this precious baby NOW!!! :)
We just want to keep giving God all the glory for all that has been done! The support, the amazing deals we have found on baby furniture, and everything in this entire process!
Check out some pics of the baby room!!
We love you all!
The Nuzum's :)
Thursday, April 18, 2013
New Update for YOU!!!
Hey out there all you blog followers!!! I didn't realize it has been so long since my last update so I thought I would let you all know where we are and what is going on right now in this whole process.
What we have been doing with our time is filling out lots of information for a profile. The adoption agency that we are going through has asked us a series of questions that we had to answer and write about ourselves, our family, and our home. We also had gather a lot of pictures of ourselves. Pictures of us by ourselves, our house, us on vacations, our extended families, etc. So we have got that all done now and will be sending that off tomorrow! Once our adoption agency gets it, then they will organize it into a profile. Then they will put our profile online and birthmothers out there can start reading our profile and try and decide if we are the right match for their baby!!! HOW EXCITING! That means after that profile is out there...we could be matched that very same day, 18 months from now, and/or everything in between!
The next thing we have been doing is filling out loads and loads of paperwork for our home study. There is a lot involved in our home study notebook. Lots of paperwork about us, our family, our income, and every other small detail in our life. We have to go get physicals, get a criminal check out, get finger prints taken, etc. We have been filling out paperwork for several nights now and haven't even made a dent it feels like! Once we finish that then we will have somebody come to our home and visit us a couple of times and they will approve or deny us as suitable to adopt! So keep your fingers crossed!!
Ha! Thought that was funny!!
Anyways, what else is going on??? Lots of you all out there have been asking about more fundraisers and what else we have planned. We still need to raise at least another $5,000.00. So we definitely have some things planned! FIRST...A very dear friend to us (Sharen Cunningham) has been very gracious to us. She has decided to host a garage sale with the proceeds going to the adoption fund! How sweet of her for doing that!! It is going to be in the very first part of May (more details to come) and if ANYBODY has things that you don't use that you don't want in the way anymore...Sharen is accepting donations! I know WE have been searching through the house and getting rid of unused things! Dressers, dishes, clothes, etc. So like I said...if you have stuff you want to get rid of you can always send them Sharen's way!!
Thank you all for being so supportive in every kind of way!
We love you!
The Nuzum's
What we have been doing with our time is filling out lots of information for a profile. The adoption agency that we are going through has asked us a series of questions that we had to answer and write about ourselves, our family, and our home. We also had gather a lot of pictures of ourselves. Pictures of us by ourselves, our house, us on vacations, our extended families, etc. So we have got that all done now and will be sending that off tomorrow! Once our adoption agency gets it, then they will organize it into a profile. Then they will put our profile online and birthmothers out there can start reading our profile and try and decide if we are the right match for their baby!!! HOW EXCITING! That means after that profile is out there...we could be matched that very same day, 18 months from now, and/or everything in between!
The next thing we have been doing is filling out loads and loads of paperwork for our home study. There is a lot involved in our home study notebook. Lots of paperwork about us, our family, our income, and every other small detail in our life. We have to go get physicals, get a criminal check out, get finger prints taken, etc. We have been filling out paperwork for several nights now and haven't even made a dent it feels like! Once we finish that then we will have somebody come to our home and visit us a couple of times and they will approve or deny us as suitable to adopt! So keep your fingers crossed!!
Anyways, what else is going on??? Lots of you all out there have been asking about more fundraisers and what else we have planned. We still need to raise at least another $5,000.00. So we definitely have some things planned! FIRST...A very dear friend to us (Sharen Cunningham) has been very gracious to us. She has decided to host a garage sale with the proceeds going to the adoption fund! How sweet of her for doing that!! It is going to be in the very first part of May (more details to come) and if ANYBODY has things that you don't use that you don't want in the way anymore...Sharen is accepting donations! I know WE have been searching through the house and getting rid of unused things! Dressers, dishes, clothes, etc. So like I said...if you have stuff you want to get rid of you can always send them Sharen's way!!
Thank you all for being so supportive in every kind of way!
We love you!
The Nuzum's
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
SEVERAL UPDATES!!
Hey just wanted to keep all you informed on what's happening!! Well first, my amazing grandmother (mema) has been so gracious to Richard and I by offering her time and talent. She has just painted a piece of art and donated it and put it up for auction with the proceeds going toward the adoption. The auction just ended 45 minutes ago and the ending bid was 975 dollars!!! SO AMAZING!!! I can't thank those that we were bidding enough. We ESPECIALLY can't thank my mema enough. The winner of the auction will be blessed to be able to own a piece of her artwork. Thank you Thank you Thank You!!!
Second update is: WE FINISHED THE PUZZLE!!!!!!!!! It is totally complete! Just finished up tonight! I just can't believe all of you out there that helped make this puzzle complete. It is a feeling I can't describe. To feel that all of you are behind us in our adoption process is definitely something that can't be described. We love all of you to pieces!! Ha Ha get it...PIECES!?!? PUZZLE!?!? Crack my self up over here!! :) Alright here is a picture of the finished puzzle. Now to get it framed!
The above picture was taken by my mother. It was the last two pieces of the puzzle and it was Richard and I putting in the very last pieces.
Second update is: WE FINISHED THE PUZZLE!!!!!!!!! It is totally complete! Just finished up tonight! I just can't believe all of you out there that helped make this puzzle complete. It is a feeling I can't describe. To feel that all of you are behind us in our adoption process is definitely something that can't be described. We love all of you to pieces!! Ha Ha get it...PIECES!?!? PUZZLE!?!? Crack my self up over here!! :) Alright here is a picture of the finished puzzle. Now to get it framed!
The above picture was taken by my mother. It was the last two pieces of the puzzle and it was Richard and I putting in the very last pieces.
We love you all!
The Nuzum's :)
Sunday, March 31, 2013
The Most Important Blog So Far!!!!!
Look at the title of this particular post: "The most important blog so far". Why is it the most important blog so far you ask??? Well...let me tell you why. Sit back. Relax. Grab a cup of coffee. Because this may be a long one. Not sure yet. I'm just going to write until I stop :)
It is the most important blog because this one is the one that is going to show God in all his amazingness. The one that is hopefully going to let everybody out there reading this KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that God is real. Not only is He real, but He is takes care of His children. He is our Provider. He is our Father. He works in His own time and because of all this He deserves to be praised. To be lifted up.
Ready for the story? Let's go!!
I'm not going to lie, this week has been hard on Richard and I. We were looking at 4 days left until our deadline. And we had 2,400 dollars in the bank. We need 5,000 dollars by our deadline which is today to be exact. Sunday, March 31st 2013. As you can see, that's barely half of the money we need. We still need 2,600 dollars. We have 4 days to get 2,600 dollars!?!?!?! Talk about us looking at that amount and thinking to ourselves "ha yeah right". So we started preparing ourselves mentally and emotionally. We started to talk to each other and decided that maybe this agency isn't God's plan after all. Maybe we got ahead of ourselves. Maybe we aren't going to reach our deadline because we are supposed to be somewhere else. We REALLY feel like it would bring God the most glory if we did this adoption debt free. So that's our plan. No short term loans. No borrowing from family. So we were preparing to have to stop this process until we had the money. And let me tell you this...it simply broke our hearts....to even think about stopping before we got started was really hard to grasp.
So here we are on Friday night, still needing 2,600 dollars. We met up with some very good friends of ours for a date night. When we left they handed us a check for 200 dollars. We were so thankful beyond words to them as I know it was a sacrifice. On our way home from our date night received another message to stop by another friends house. Somebody had anonymously given 550 dollars to help with this adoption. And another good friend 50 dollars that same night. It was too much to take in. I couldn't believe it. This is crazy! God You are so amazing!!! The next morning went to work and person after person came up to me handing me 100 dollars at a time!! This is seriously not happening right now is it?!?! How is this possible??? So we went from needing 2,600 dollars on Friday morning and by Saturday evening we were down to only needing 700 dollars!! Oh my!! I can't even grasp that!
Sunday morning (today) We celebrated Easter. Had an amazing time with family and friends. Just sat down for some down time. Richard received a call from a very special couple. They chose to give us 600 dollars. And then shortly after that another dear friend to us had text us and said they would like to give us 100 dollars. Are you seeing that???? 700 dollars is what we needed by Sunday. Sunday afternoon 700 dollars just comes to us. Can you even GRASP that?!?!? I am not sure I have yet. God is so amazing. I feel so stupid for even doubting for a single second. I ask for forgiveness for doubting that God would do something totally amazing.
There was a reason that I never told on my blog how much we needed exactly. Because I didn't want a single person to be able to doubt that God is in control of this adoption. We needed 5,000. We got 5,000. Really God?? You are so AMAZING!!!!!
We are SO EXCITED!!!! I can't even believe this!!! Is this really happening to us??? Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your support. Thank you! Thank You! Thank You!
We will definitely keep you updated!!
We love you!
The Nuzum's :)
It is the most important blog because this one is the one that is going to show God in all his amazingness. The one that is hopefully going to let everybody out there reading this KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that God is real. Not only is He real, but He is takes care of His children. He is our Provider. He is our Father. He works in His own time and because of all this He deserves to be praised. To be lifted up.
Ready for the story? Let's go!!
I'm not going to lie, this week has been hard on Richard and I. We were looking at 4 days left until our deadline. And we had 2,400 dollars in the bank. We need 5,000 dollars by our deadline which is today to be exact. Sunday, March 31st 2013. As you can see, that's barely half of the money we need. We still need 2,600 dollars. We have 4 days to get 2,600 dollars!?!?!?! Talk about us looking at that amount and thinking to ourselves "ha yeah right". So we started preparing ourselves mentally and emotionally. We started to talk to each other and decided that maybe this agency isn't God's plan after all. Maybe we got ahead of ourselves. Maybe we aren't going to reach our deadline because we are supposed to be somewhere else. We REALLY feel like it would bring God the most glory if we did this adoption debt free. So that's our plan. No short term loans. No borrowing from family. So we were preparing to have to stop this process until we had the money. And let me tell you this...it simply broke our hearts....to even think about stopping before we got started was really hard to grasp.
So here we are on Friday night, still needing 2,600 dollars. We met up with some very good friends of ours for a date night. When we left they handed us a check for 200 dollars. We were so thankful beyond words to them as I know it was a sacrifice. On our way home from our date night received another message to stop by another friends house. Somebody had anonymously given 550 dollars to help with this adoption. And another good friend 50 dollars that same night. It was too much to take in. I couldn't believe it. This is crazy! God You are so amazing!!! The next morning went to work and person after person came up to me handing me 100 dollars at a time!! This is seriously not happening right now is it?!?! How is this possible??? So we went from needing 2,600 dollars on Friday morning and by Saturday evening we were down to only needing 700 dollars!! Oh my!! I can't even grasp that!
Sunday morning (today) We celebrated Easter. Had an amazing time with family and friends. Just sat down for some down time. Richard received a call from a very special couple. They chose to give us 600 dollars. And then shortly after that another dear friend to us had text us and said they would like to give us 100 dollars. Are you seeing that???? 700 dollars is what we needed by Sunday. Sunday afternoon 700 dollars just comes to us. Can you even GRASP that?!?!? I am not sure I have yet. God is so amazing. I feel so stupid for even doubting for a single second. I ask for forgiveness for doubting that God would do something totally amazing.
There was a reason that I never told on my blog how much we needed exactly. Because I didn't want a single person to be able to doubt that God is in control of this adoption. We needed 5,000. We got 5,000. Really God?? You are so AMAZING!!!!!
We are SO EXCITED!!!! I can't even believe this!!! Is this really happening to us??? Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your support. Thank you! Thank You! Thank You!
We will definitely keep you updated!!
We love you!
The Nuzum's :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)