Our adoption journey began as an idea at least 14 years ago during our dating years. God calls us to care for the orphans and widows, and that’s what we wanted to do. We fostered children for 2 years, alongside a few other families in our church. We loved our time as foster parents, and continue to spend time with our three former foster children (now ages 15, 12, and 10!) but it was obvious that season was over. God blessed us with two children and continued to give us a desire for adoption. We prayed for months as a family, and God began to clearly open the door for international adoption. That door has remained wide open! We are so excited to meet our future child from Nigeria.
Why Nigeria? We were initially open to any country, and the case worker laughed when we asked if we could submit an application to all countries that allow international adoption and see which one responds first, but we landed on Nigeria since Bryan and I both have ties to sub-Saharan Africa and a heart for racial reconciliation in our community in Atlanta. In undergrad, my honors thesis was on Kenyan women’s educational and economic empowerment, and I spent 8 weeks living with a local family in Kenya conducting research. It was a life-changing experience; I fell in love with the people and culture. My second undergrad major was in Sub-Saharan African studies – I learned so much, and even published my honors thesis as a book. When Bryan was in the Marines, he had 1 year and 4 months of sea time, deployed off of the coast of Somalia and Kenya. Thus, Africa is near and dear to both of us.
More than 3 years since we applied, we finally received the green light on June 24, 2024 to come to Nigeria to meet Joseph, a sweet 1 1/2 year old boy. We applied for visas right away, then the day before our departure in late July, Nigeria asked us to delay our trip 2 weeks due to government protests. We finally arrived in Nigeria on August 10 and met Joseph at the orphange the same day! On our third day there, the court gave us clearance to bring Joseph to our AirBnb, where he stayed with us for 2 months. Although he was scared and timid for the first couple of weeks, he warmed up to Bryan quickly and slowly warmed up to Aislynn. We made lots of special memories together. On September 2, 2024, we legally adopted Joseph as our son in Nigeria! We had to fly back to the U.S. without Joseph in October 2024 for work and are now patiently waiting on USCIS (immigration) to clear Joseph (they have to investigate his background) and issue his documents to come to the U.S. At that time, we can legally adopt him in the U.S.
Adoption has definitely taught us patience: the application, home study, dossier, initial USCIS approval, and Nigeria approval together took over a year! We then waited about a year for a child referral due to various factors, including a change in staff, our preference for a child age 0-3, and the method that Nigeria uses to process children in “batches.” Our official match from the court came about 3 years into the process. When we flew back to the U.S. from Nigeria in October, we were told to expect about 6-8 months for USCIS to clear Joseph (posibly longer), so that's where we're at now.
The fees associated with adoption are enormous, close to $50K in agency fees, home study fees, immigration & visa fees, legal fees, and travel. If you feel called to give financially, we appreciate every little bit. You can give a tax-deductible donation via the link on this page. We’re overwhelmingly grateful to have received a $7,000 matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans, so anything you donate up to that amount will be matched. Thank you all for your love and support!
– Aislynn & Bryan
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Lifesong has been blessed with partners who underwrite all U.S. administrative and fundraising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means 100% of your donation will go directly to the adoption.
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