A Journey for Braces

I forgot to put a photo of Naomi with her braces up. Ooopps. She got them last month and will have them on for about a year and a half. Other than torn up lips, a bit of hunger, and some wild memories of the trip down to Abuja, she seems to be doing well with them. Here is one of the wild experiences she now has in her memory bank:

On a recent trip to Abuja, the nation’s capital, Jon, Lauren and Naomi encountered a situation that is becoming all too frequent. We had heard of them, but had never had a personal encounter with them. They are called the nail boys. The government prints numerous vehicle stickers, similar to permits or tag renewals. However, these ‘required’ stickers can truly be hilarious, if you are in a certain frame of mind: commercial loading and off-loading, rubbish receptacle on the back of your vehicle permit (you must have a permit even though the receptacle is illegal to have!), etc. How can so many sticker names be contrived? So…on with the story….once the government prints these stickers (new ones all the time!), they sell them to nail boys. The nail boys can charge whatever they want for them.

The nail boys are on long stretches of road, usually accompanied by the VIO (“officials”). It was on one of our monthly trips to Abuja that we met these boys. The VIO had roadblocks set up. Once the VIO inspected our personal vehicle and saw that we were lacking in one of the many new stickers, they called the nail boys over. The nail boys placed nail strips and rocks under the front and back tires of our van. They tried to sell useless stickers to us for hundreds of dollars. They threatened to beat our driver (and there was little doubt that they would since they had before!) They almost had our van towed to whereabouts unknown. This harassment went on for over two hours. Finally, after some negotiations, money paid, and lots of sweating and praying, our vehicle was permitted to leave.

A few hours later, Naomi had braces on her teeth and prepared for the long (4 hour) return trip. Since Naomi has a pretty bad crossbite, she also had something put on her back teeth to prevent her teeth from touching. This has proved to be challenging when we are making a menu. Hard to eat when your teeth don't touch!! She is a trooper and not complaining at all. We are so thankful that the Lord takes care of us in both the little and big ways. On the day that He protected our family on the road to get braces, a package from home containing pudding arrived. The package took over 100 days to get here, but the timing was perfect.

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7