These Mozambique Orphans Were Adopted By Families in the Same Arizona City

Kelvin Lewis, 18, and his best friend Afonso Slater, 18, attend the same high school, play on the same soccer team and plan to go to Brigham Young University together next year. They even earned their Eagle Scout badges at the same time. And after everything these buddies have helped each other through, college doesn’t seem so difficult.

They first met as young children in a Mozambique village where their mothers were best friends. “In my earliest memories I’ve always known Kelvin,” Alfonso told The Arizona Republic. But by 2002 both of their families had died of AIDS. The two friends were placed in the same orphanage where they depended on each other for their basic survival. Later, two families in America wanted to adopt the boys, but because the U.S. has no adoption agreement with the Mozambique, it took six years and numerous court battles to bring them to the states.

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During one of the trips to Mozambique, Kelvin and Alfonso’s future mothers met and realized they both lived in Gilbert, Arizona. After both kids were adopted in 2008, they wound up living two miles from each other in Gilbert. “Where Kelvin is, Afonso is not far behind and vice versa,” LaCinda Lewis, Kelvin’s mom, told The Huffington Post. “Their very tight friendship makes perfect sense and is the reason that they are more like siblings than just friends.” The boys themselves are also blown away by their fate. “It was just coincidence that [our parents] lived so close to each other,” Alfonso says. “I’d say it’s more like a blessing, really,” adds Kelvin. “It’s more like God wanted it to happen.”