Good news today!

First sign of forward movement in 10 months!!

We just received this e-mail from the Lagos Consulate this morning:

“Your cases are currently with USCIS for adjudication of the I-600 petition. In order to expedite the overall process, USCIS has forwarded your cases to the U.S. Consulate General in Lagos for the mandatory I-604 Determination on Child for Adoption, commonly called the orphan determination process...The Consulate reviews each case individually and is unable to make a clear prediction for how long this process will take.  This information is also outlined in the travel.state.gov page that provides information on adoptions in Nigeria which can be found here.  Please be assured, we are doing all we can to process your applications as quickly as possible.”

Praise the Lord! This was the step we expected to happen in August of last year after submitting our I-600 applications to USCIS. Over the last three months we have been attempting to contact USCIS with the assistance of Senator Bennet’s office, but the limited communication back from them has just been very generic and vague in nature. About 4 weeks ago, a fellow adoptive family from Colorado traveled to Lagos to pick up their newly adopted daughter. They helped us by hand-delivering a letter to the Consulate requesting their assistance with Peter and Zion’s cases.

We are SO GRATEFUL that the files have finally been received by the Lagos Consulate so that they can conduct the I-604 Determination. This is a huge answer to prayer. Please keep praying for this process! Historically, the I-604 investigation can take several months and there is always the potential for hiccups and roadblocks. Here is a summary of what the I-604 entails from the State Department’s website:

“The Department of State, Office of Children’s Issues, wishes to remind U.S. adoption service providers (ASPs) and prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) adopting a child in non-Hague Convention countries of the potentially lengthy time involved in processing the Form I-604, Determination on Child for Adoption (commonly referred to as an orphan determination). Consular officers are required to conduct a Form I-604 determination to verify the child’s orphan status prior to immigrant visa processing. Conducting this determination is a critical part of the adoption process in countries that are not signatories to the Hague Adoption Convention.

When USCIS adjudicates a Form I-600 petition in the United States, the consular section in the child’s country must complete a Form I-604 determination. When Department of State adjudicates a Form I-600 petition, the consular section must complete the Form I-604 determination to verify the child’s orphan status prior to visa adjudication. Consular officers appreciate that families are eager to bring their adopted child home as quickly as possible; however, depending upon the circumstances of the case, it can take several weeks or, in some cases, months to complete the Form I-604 orphan determination. While the Form I-604 determination for most cases will consist of an analysis of available documents, some cases will require additional interviews, documentation, or a field investigation, all of which may result in delayed processing of the case.

Some additional factors that may contribute to the length of the investigation include prevailing fraud patterns in the country, civil unrest or security concerns that restrict travel to certain areas of the country, available staffing in the consular section, and poor infrastructure and record keeping in the child’s country of origin. Consular officers make every effort to complete the orphan determination as expeditiously as possible while following the requirements of U.S. immigration law. PAPs are advised to keep their travel plans flexible while awaiting the Form I-604 determination results.”

We have been thinking a lot in recent weeks about the story of the wall of Jericho in Joshua 6. On May 2, this was my journal entry:

“I do believe we are dealing with a spiritual wall put up by the powers of this dark world. Lately it has felt discouraging. We’ve been pressing on, praying and fighting in whatever ways we can think of, but it’s felt like we are ‘walking in circles.’ Maybe that’s the point. We’re going to keep ‘walking in circles,’ praying, interceding, pleading, praising God, awaiting the day when the wall will dramatically fall down flat. For now it feels quiet, fruitless, monotonous but the day is coming— with the shouting and the trumpet blowing— when GOD HIMSELF WILL DO IT. And that wall will suddenly, drastically be no more. Lord, we’re all ears. Give us instruction— to walk, to wait, to shout, to fight, whatever it might be. We anticipate You doing it. Even the wind and the water obey You. You just have to say the word. Amos 5:24 ‘But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.’ “

We know God hears your prayers. Keep them coming! We are hopeful that this wall is coming down SOON!

A prayer for today

Isaiah 33:2, 5-6, 22

O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.

The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,
and he will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.

For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver;
the Lord is our king; he will save us.

Found lots of encouragement in these verses this morning. It’s been hard to find the right words, but these verses gave me the words to pray today.

Lord, be gracious to us. We wait for You. Be our strength this morning and every day. Save us from this troubled time. Lord, You are on high. You are exalted above all other authority. You will bring justice and righteousness for Zion and Peter even when things seem unfair for them at the moment. You are the stability of our times. In You we find abundance of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. We find much peace knowing You are Judge. You are the ultimate Lawgiver and You are King. You will save us. Amen.

The situation doesn't feel good at the moment, but we wait with hope and expectation for the good that God is working through it all for His glory!

Nightmare

What a nightmare. There are just not words.

We submitted our I-600 application last July to USCIS (United States Center for Immigration Services). We received a confirmation of receipt from USCIS headquarters shortly thereafter. What is supposed to happen next is USCIS sends our application to the U.S. consulate in Lagos so that they can complete the I-604 investigation process to confirm that the boys’ orphan status is legitimate. Once that investigation is completed (can take awhile!) and approved (not a given!) then the case can come back to U.S. soil for final approval of our I-600 application, allowing the twins to immigrate to the U.S. as U.S. citizens. We were told that this process would take a minimum of 3 months’ time. We were informed that it took 6 months for the families who most recently completed adoptions from Nigeria. We were also told that there is no way to receive status updates from USCIS or the consulate in Lagos. Apparently, some families receive confirmation from the consulate in Lagos that their cases are received and other families do not. We never heard a word from the Lagos consulate.

Since it has now been over 6 months since we submitted our application, we’ve been hopeful that we might be getting close. The boys and I anxiously check the mailbox every afternoon in hopes of an I-600 approval letter.

Over the last several months, I have tried to check in with USCIS to see if I can get something of a status update (to no avail). Initially when I checked their website, they said the expected time frame for an I-600 processing would be 10 months. They also inform you that they will not respond to any inquiries of cases in process if they are within that expected time frame of 10 months. I sent an e-mail anyway to inquire about our case, only to receive an automated generic reply. A few weeks ago I checked the USCIS website again. Now the expected time frame for an I-600 application has increased to 13 months. There is no way to look up the status of your specific case, but you can input the date of your application (ours was 7/28/23) and it will provide your “case inquiry date” (i.e. the date that you are allowed to inquire a status update for your case). Guess what it says for our case submitted in July 2023?!
“The earliest you can submit questions is January 09, 2026. Please do not contact us before this date.


We will notify you if we need any additional information. We appreciate your patience while we review your case. Processing times may change – return to this page regularly for updates.”



January 9, 2026. The boys will be 6 years old by then!! Needless to say, this information did not give us any peace of mind. I tried e-mailing again and I also called USCIS. Once again I received a generic, automated e-mail reply and the robot on the phone informs you that there are no live human beings to speak to. I left a voicemail anyway, but never heard back.

Last week, I asked our adoption agency coordinator if it is possible to reach out directly to the consulate in Lagos to see if I could request a status update from them. She provided an e-mail address for me to communicate with the consulate. She said she didn’t know if they would respond, but I was welcome to give it a try. I sent an e-mail to them on Friday with our case numbers to see if we could get any updates. Yesterday morning I woke up to a reply from the Lagos consulate that stated, “We currently do not have your case. Kindly reach out to USCIS for more information in regards to the status of your case.” My heart sank. I sat down on the couch and cried. And prayed. And prayed some more. Surely they can’t mean they haven’t received our case. Maybe they meant they don’t CURRENTLY have our case but they had it in the past?! And it’s completed?? After completing my homeschool morning with the boys, I did some research online about reaching out to Colorado congressmen/representatives to help us navigate this crazy system. Time’s a-wasting in a big way. We just can’t wait anymore and we clearly need someone to advocate on our behalf. I reached out to both of our Colorado senators via online forms and left voicemails at their offices. I also was able to speak with someone at our local congressional district’s office in Castle Rock and made an in-person appointment there for next week. Yesterday afternoon I received a call back from Senator Bennet’s office. Senator Bennet and his team were tremendously helpful to us back in 2017 when Luke’s adoption went awry. They went to bat for us in a big way to help us get Luke home when the Ethiopian government shut down the adoption program. The kind lady who returned my call yesterday from Bennet’s office said she remembers helping our family back in 2017 and said they’d be more than happy to help us again. She said they have some mandatory training today and tomorrow but someone should be getting in touch with me by the end of the week to discuss a plan of action to help us get in touch with USCIS and get this ball moving. We are hopeful that they’ll be able to help us!

I really wish I had better news, but this is where we sit. More waiting. More praying. There are seriously no words. Absurd? Unbelievable? Mind boggling? Just doesn’t feel like this should even be possible. We thought the Nigerian government was challenging to work with. Little did we know that our government would be a million times more challenging.