DAY 27

DAY 27
(May 29)




I’ve enjoyed taking a step back recently and thinking about the big picture of why we are here adopting these boys. It’s because adoption is at the heart of God’s plan for us. God’s plans are so good. He deserves all the praise for adopting us as His children. And on a smaller scale, for making this plan for Peter and Zion to be adopted into our family.




Ephesians 1:




3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Deuteronomy 10:17-21 says, “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.”

My sister-in-law wrote this verse in a card when we left and it has been a big encouragement as well:




2 Chronicles 20:12 For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.

This is such a crazy adventure. There have been many times already (and I’m sure many more to come) that all we can say is, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you!” It’s a hard place to be but the best place to be at the same time.

Today we’re feeling a little cooped up. It’s the inauguration day for Nigeria’s president. We’ve been warned by multiple sources to stay put for the day. The elections were fraught with corruption so there is fear of violent riots. It’s also been stormy all morning, so we haven’t been able to take the boys out to swim or play. For now, they’re watching a show together. Our house manager, Promise, who has become a friend as well is sitting in the kitchen chatting with Dave. Hopefully the weather clears soon and we can get the kids outside. We’re used to the electricity going off a few times per day. Thankfully it doesn’t usually stay off for long. This morning for some reason it went off many times. Our water supply also shut off for awhile when I was trying to wash breakfast dishes. When it came on, it was dark brown in color. Not sure what that was about!

It’s been amazing to me how quick kids are to adjust to new norms. The first few days we were here, our original three boys would freak out when the electricity turned off. When it happened in the middle of the night, Luke and Ben would come running and screaming to our room. Very quickly, they became accustomed. Now they just keep their headlamps on their nightstands for when the lights go off. When the power goes off, AJ just announces nonchalantly, “Electricity is off!” It was also a new routine to brush teeth with filtered water only. All of us made the mistake in the beginning of sticking the toothbrush under the faucet out of habit. Now they are well-trained and would never think to do that. They just know to bring their water bottles up with them at bedtime to brush their teeth.

This week should pass pretty quickly. Only 3 nights left in this apartment. Woohoo! I keep looking at the photos on Airbnb of the new place where we are headed. Gives me hope :) Tomorrow we plan to get together with some of our new friends— the American family who has been stuck here for almost 2 years trying to complete their daughter’s adoption. Wednesday Adun plans to come back to help me while I get packed up for our move on Thursday. Then Papa flies in Thursday evening! He has a pile of things we’ve requested— shoes that fit the twins (their feet are much bigger than I anticipated!), “blankies” for the twins, GF pretzels, some of our favorite granolas and baking mixes, more melatonin, kids cough medicine, pull-ups, wipes etc. Sure is nice to have someone coming halfway through to bring things we want!

We had some REALLY ENCOURAGING developments lately. Last week, two ladies from our U.S. adoption agency came to Lagos for their first time. Becca, who is our main contact and coordinator, was one of them. We’re very grateful for her. She has been amazing to work with. Very responsive, smart and helpful. She lives in a different state as us, so this was actually our first time meeting her in person. It was cool timing to have them in-country while we are here and was nice to compare stories and thoughts together regarding this crazy adoption process and crazy city! As we have shared already, we have been dreading the day that we have to return the twins to the orphanage while we wait for the U.S. immigration process. We had talked about how nice it would be to be able to bring the twins to Jos to one of the orphan care centers run by our friends the Fretheims. That’s where Uncle Dan lives too as well as many other friends and contacts. We asked Becca about this possibility when she visited— thinking for sure that this would be prohibited— and she immediately answered, “Yes! Sure! They’re your kids. You can put them wherever you want within Nigeria.” We were elated! We couldn’t believe it!! We have since spoken with Peter on the phone and he was more than helpful and encouraging and completely positive about the idea. He and his wife will think and pray about what situation might be the best for the twins in our absence. There may be some Nigerian staff at the ministry or some westerners available to care for them. Or they can stay in one of the care centers. No matter what situation it ends up being, we are confident that it will be a million times better than sending them back to their previous orphanage here in Lagos. They will be safer in Jos. They will be loved and cared for by people we know and can stay in close communication with. We’re not sure yet about the timing but we hope to fly to Jos as soon as our business here in Lagos is done. Maybe another 3-4 weeks or so. We have received the go-ahead to leave Lagos once the boys’ birth certificates and NIN are received. Then we can get them settled and comfortable in Jos. Shortly after that, we should receive the go-ahead to complete the last step of our first trip which is to bring the twins to Abuja (4-5 hour drive from Jos) to complete the passport applications. At this point, we will send the twins back to Jos and we will fly back to Colorado from Abuja. Can’t express the relief and peace that this plan has brought to us on multiple levels!! It means setting the twins up for much less trauma and difficulty during the waiting period and it also means we can get out of Lagos sooner and go back to Jos again to visit friends. The last time we were there was before we had any kids at all!

Another encouragement (much more minor but still encouraging!)— we finally have a drip coffee maker in our apartment. Adun was able to order the coffee maker, coffee grinder and filters for us. Who knew it would take 3+ weeks to get access to real coffee lol! Sometimes it’s the little things in life :)

The twins continue to be a handful but we continue to see a lot of progress. They do seem to be growing in their level of trust and comfort in their new parents and family. There’s a lot less fighting. Tantrums are lessening. New habits are forming. Peter seemed to turn the corner the other day… He was really struggling with behavior and attitude. One morning, we opened the front door to answer the bell and he bolted for the street (which he knows very well not to do). Ben ran out after him to pull him back inside. Peter was mad about it and then made up a lie about Ben punching him or something. Dave dealt with it and put Peter in a timeout chair. After the dust had settled, Peter was allowed out of time out and immediately slapped Zion in the face (simply because he was the nearest victim). After the third offense, we decided we needed a bigger consequence so we told him he would not be able to swim when we went to the pool that day. We felt badly for him. It felt a bit like torture to make him sit on the sidelines of the pool while the brothers swam in the afternoon but we helped him process it and it really seemed to get through. He was able to verbalize that because he ran in the street and lied and hurt a brother, his pool privileges were taken away. His behavior has been markedly better since then.