In the News

When a reporter enters the Boyer household on Northeast 28th Place, the two young boys — Andre, 6, and his brother, Luke, 4 — are clearly excited.

They talk in a mix of French and English and grab hold of a leg and a hand or two.

Jason and Jennifer Boyer adopted Andre and Luke from the Democratic Republic of Congo roughly three years ago. It took most of that time to get permission for the boys to leave their native county. That permission came in late November, and the pair joined sisters Gabby, 7, and Claire, 5, the Boyer’s biological children, as members of the Sammamish household.Later, when asked direct questions, they are exactly like typical young children with someone they don’t know, offering one-word answers at most. That’s OK. Not only are the brothers youngsters, on this day, they had been in the U.S. for all of about three weeks.

Jason Boyer said his wife was the driving force behind the adoptions. Both Jason, an orthopedic surgeon, and Jennefer have spent time working overseas. A public health specialist, Jennefer worked in several African countries, including at an orphanage in Zimbabwe. AIDS was a huge problem.

“There was a graveyard there with all these little headstones that the kids could see,” Jennefer said. “It was just a part of their lives.”

When she and her husband started thinking about adopting, Jennefer began looking into international adoption agencies. They met Andre and Luke through such an agency and adopted the boys in December 2012. The Congo government recognized the adoption, Jennefer said, but wouldn’t allow the brothers to leave the country.

“We never found out why, exactly,” Jennefer adds, but said the family needed exit letters to take the boys out of the Congo.

While they waited, Andre and Luke lived in foster care, and the Boyers received regular updates on how they were doing. Luke became extremely ill, and Jennefer said at one point his body had about half the blood he needed. A transfusion had to happen or Luke probably wasn’t going to live. In February of this year, the Boyers made a decision. Jennefer was going to have to go to the Congo and care for Andre and Luke herself.

“It was awful, frankly,” Jason said of having his wife gone for what turned out to be nine months. “It was not fun. It’s hard to have half your family half a world away and you can’t keep them safe.”

Jennefer quickly moved herself and the boys into an apartment in Kinshasa. Andre and Luke initially were not in good shape.

“They both had these huge malnutrition bellies that are gone now,” Jennefer said.

The politics of the situation weren’t exactly promising.

“It’s not the most stable place in the world,” Jason said. Jennefer said she was advised to stay in her apartment and did just that as much as possible.

“The worst part was not knowing how long I was going to be there,” she said.

In the meantime, she Skyped with her husband and daughters as often as possible. In August, Jason took the girls to the Congo to meet their brothers.

In November, Jennefer finally received the needed paperwork allowing the boys to leave the country. Just as she doesn’t really know why they were withheld, she doesn’t know why the exit letters suddenly appeared. She packed up and left the country as quickly as possible.

Jennefer said she especially wanted to thank U.S. Reps. Suzan DelBene, D-1, and Dave Reichert, R-8, for their help in writing letters and applying pressure on the Congo government.

Andre and Luke now attend a French-speaking school in Bellevue. Andre claims he doesn’t like it, though Jennefer insists he has said he does. They are slowly adjusting to life here and to their new family.

“It’s the little things they notice,” Jennefer said, things like escalators and water fountains.

Congo is a highly Christian nation, Jennefer said, so Andre and Luke know about the upcoming Christmas holiday. The Congo holiday is not as secularized as here, but Jennefer said the boys know who “Pere Noel” is. Not wanting them to have to meet Santa Claus in a crowded mall, Jason said he would be visiting the Boyer home in the near future.

Overall, Jason said having Andre and Luke home has been wonderful, if a bit noisy. “The house has definitely become a lot livelier,” Jason said.