Some women can conceive a child relatively easy, others aren’t so fortunate. Some families have a smooth and successful adoption, others do not. In both instances, we fall into the later category.

My husband and I adopted our son domestically, and wanted to adopt a little girl from overseas next. Our adoption agency advised us to consider Nigeria. The USA had recently come to an agreement with them to allow Americans to adopt from their country. In the fall of 2017, we filled out all of our paperwork and applications to reflect this. We would be adopting our future daughter from Nigeria. We had been told that the entire process, from flying to Lagos to returning to Florida, would take up to 16 weeks. That was 21 months ago. 

We were matched with our daughter, Ivy, in the fall of 2019. On January 7, 2020, we arrived in Lagos to begin our bonding time and adopt her. On February 17, 2020, she became our daughter, complete with a birth certificate, National ID, and Adoption Decree to reflect this. The following month, after a beautiful time together, we needed to take our prescheduled flights home, but without our daughter. This was heartbreaking. We made arrangements for her orphanage to take her back for what we thought would be less than three months. There’s no way that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would take a total of three months to approve her, considering they typically approve the adoption visa applications within days to weeks post adoption. 

But here we are, 19 months after applying for our daughter to come home, and her application was denied. That's 19 months of her precious youth and our time together as a family, wasted. What does our adoption agency and the three immigration attorneys that we’ve consulted with tell us about this outcome? That it’s a biased decision because of the country she was born. From what the professionals have told us, this happens often to children adopted from certain parts of our world.

Our immigration attorney has appealed the denial of Ivy’s I-600 (immigration application) with USCIS, but she, and the other professionals we've consulted with, have all given us the same advice: Our denial was not due to inadequate proof or paperwork. Therefore, we need to get our political leaders involved, spread our story on social media, and get our community to learn about Ivy, and how unfairly she/ we are being treated. So here we are, asking you all for your help too.

If our appeal is not successful, we will be forced to quit our jobs, sell our home, get rid of all of our belongings, and leave everyone and everything we love, behind. Our family of four will have to move from country to country on visitor visas until we find a country who allows us to become permanent residents. We will have to find whatever work we can to feed our family.

If we are heard, and our appeal is successful, we will live in our home country of the USA, surrounded by our family and friends. My husband will get to retain the career that he's spent the past 20 years working towards, as a firefighter and Chaplain. That is the life we've planned and envisioned for our children, and what they deserve.

Although this petition is specifically to bring our eight-year-old daughter home, many families before us have faced this same struggle. We don't want this injustice to continue to happen. So please sign to help us Bring Ivy Home, and hopefully prevent this from happening to children and families in the future. Thank you all for your support! 

Sincerely,

The Lord family