GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C.- A Guilford County family is trying to help a Nigerian student return to the U.S.

Cinda and Nick Purrington have been hosting the student, Joel Atabo, for the past four years. They’re not your ordinary family, as they’ve taken in three boys from Nigeria over the years.

Joel Atabo and Ikenna Smart were sent to the United States as minors, in hopes of being recruited to play basketball at prep schools who are looking to enhance their teams.

Their host father and a lawyer in Greensboro, Nick Purrington, says, “With Ikenna he came over and was recruited by a highschool in Maryland as an athlete and he fell into a really bad situation. He and two other nigerians stepped off the plane in New York, they were robbed by the cabbie, the coach of the school wasn't there to meet him . They finally made their way to the school...and there wasn't a school. There was this pastor who had these two other students, who were his own children and he was trying to rebuild a school he had at one point in time, on the backs of a basketball team because these were athletes. The kids were locked in a conference room for three weeks and they finally got word out to one of their friends and a family in Greensboro was able to bring them down here. Ikenna ended up moving to New Garden Friend School where our kids, Alfred and Charles, went. He needed a place to stay and I have an extraordinary wife.”

Cinda Purrington, their host mother, says she would never turn down someone in situation where they need help, “I got a telephone call asking would you take Ikenna, I said sure. I didn't even ask him (Nick), I said sure! I called him and said we've got a new child coming, and thats how it all started."

Since then, the Purrington family has been growing.

Ikenna was eventually able to bring his younger brother, Ossy Smart, to join his host family in North Carolina.

The Purringtons always wanted to adopt the boys, but by the time they had taken them into their home, at ages 15 and 16, the boys were past the cut-off age to be adopted.

During Thanksgiving 2013, Ikenna got a phone call from his friend Joel Atabo, who had ended up playing basketball at a prep school in Texas.

Nick says, ”He called Ikenna and said help. All the kids have left my school and there’s nothing for me here in Texas. We said sure fly up, and we got him a plane ticket.”

That plane ticket to North Carolina would change Joel’s life.

“He didn't really have anyway to eat on a regular basis, he was at the will of other people,” the Purringtons say, “When he came here, he's a 6'9 guy, who weighed 180 pounds. He looked awful, he was so skinny, he looked like he had been homeless."

Once Joel made it to Guilford County, their first priority was his education.

"We tried to enroll him into Durham Tech, but his I-20 wouldn't work, they said we can't get it to transfer.” Nick explains, “He had an I-20 that the school in Texas had given him. We spent the next 5 months trying to get him into school because that’s what his visa required so we found a school in Illinois, Lake Land College. The coach there said 'Sure, come here, We've got a good program.' So that’s where he went, he moved to Illinois in June 201. While he was there, he was working with designated school official and they still couldn't get his I-20 to tranfser properly. We hired a lawyer to look into his situation, they discovered the I-20 the school in Texas had given Joel was actually a forgery. So we started going through the process of trying to get Joel's status reinstated. After 18 months they reinstated his status and made a determination that it wasn't in his control and he was a minor at the time."

The Purringtons have made sure all of Joel’s paperwork has been in order since he joined their family in North Carolina.

"We got it all fixed and he finished his associates degree at Lake Land College and transferred to Mckindree University in Lebanon, Illinois and played basketball for them in the 2016-17 school year.” 

After confirming all the boys' Visa status’ were up to date, the family decided to send the boys to Nigeria for a few weeks to visit their parents and siblings.

Ikenna and Ossy’s visas were renewed to come back, but Joel’s student visa was denied.

Nick explains, “After being denied, he applied for another visa interview because he had a flight back at the end of June. So we got all the paperwork over to him for his second interview and he was denied again. He interviewed again in August, which seemed to go really well for him. The consular officer told him that he just needed to get one thing fixed on his I-20. Mckindree University had accidentally showed his education level as secondary as opposed to a Bachelor’s degree. We went back and they immediately issued another I-20 with the correct educational level-- Joel submitted it to the collection office of the embassy and then he waited for 3 months to see if he would admitted or not. Mid-October, his I-20 was automically terminated because he wasn't enrolled in school, so he had to go back to Mckindree and have them issue another I-20 for the spring semester, which they did. In late November, the embassy issued a refusal notice. Once he got the refusal notice, wee scrambled again to see if we can get him another interview before school started in the spring and that was last week, and he was unfortunantely denied again. He was supposed to graduate this May. He's got one more year to go."

The family says Senator Thom Tillis’s office has written letters in support of Joel’s return, but so far has not heard back from consulate officials in Nigeria.