PART ONE: THE WHAT

Adejumobi.

Adejumobi is a weird name for a girl because it’s mostly a surname and we all know that surname usually come from boys. And yes, I didn’t like the name when I was younger. My siblings have names like Olamide, Bolaji, Tolani. Then there’s me, Adejumobi.

I wanted a simple and common girl name like Lara, Tinuola, Simisola and what not. At this time, I didn’t know there was a story behind the name “Adejumobi” but I knew there’s an Adejumobi Adegbesan; a newscaster that my Daddy liked but RMD married. So I thought he named me after his TV crush but there was more.

Whenever I tell someone my name is Adejumobi, on social media the response is usually “are you male or female?” or most times, they just assume I’m male. In person, the response is usually, “not your surname, I mean your name.” Then there are people that mix up Adejumobi with Ajimobi and ask if I’m related to the late former governor of Oyo State. No I’m not. I’m from Ondo State. Adejumobi is my name and it is a totally different name from Ajimobi.

When it comes to pronouncing and remembering the name, some people fail woefully. Some say it’s Ajetunmobi (whattttt?) how hard could Adejumobi possibly be? The one that annoys me most is Jumoke. God!!! It vexes my spirit. I didn’t like Adejumobi when I was younger because it wasn’t common. One of the reasons I like it now is because it’s uncommon. Life is weird.

Yes, there are diminutives. Although I didn’t really like most of them, I’ve learned to tolerate and accept them. So there’s Ajumobi (Lara, my childhood best friend is the only person I remember calling me this apart from my teachers and other Solomon Grace people). There’s Jumobi (this is by far the most popular diminutive). There’s Jumi (also known as Jummy or Jumie and also very common.) Then there’s Jumz (Rotimi was the first person to call me this then Yemi). Then there’s Juju (I can’t remember how this started but it got popular in Ei. It was initially Jujubox but I removed the box because by the grace of God, I am not a box. Glorayyyy).

My parents call me Ajumi Jumi especially my Dad when he’s pulling my legs. My brother calls me Jumi o. The o is always there. I’d never understand his problem. My Dad calls me Jumi not the way everyone else calls it but I don’t know how to accentuate the name in writing. Then there’s Ajumi baby, Jumi Jumi, Jumi baby e.t.c.

PART TWO: THE WHEN

God gifted me to this earth in 1999. I landed on the 23rd of October. It was a Saturday. I was born on a Saturday so I should like parties but blehhhh.

I’m the middle child okay. There’s:

My sister: first daughter

My brother: first and only son

Me: Me

My sister: last child

I hated that I came after my brother. I hated being in the middle. I got scolded for my older siblings because they were older. I got scolded for my younger sister because she was younger. And then I’d think, when do they get scolded for me? How is this fair? I nursed a lot of resentment while growing up because I always felt cheated, misunderstood and unheard. Thank God for light.

There were times I felt unimportant because according to me, I don’t have a position. Omo, I wasn’t very wise because in the real sense of things, what does my position have to do with anything? If this position thing had been the only thing I was bitter about, it’d have been less burdensome for me but nah, I added it with the circumstances surrounding my birth. At this point, I was convinced that I came at the wrong time and maybe, just maybe, I shouldn’t have been born.

I thought of sending myself back many times but I’d get so engrossed in planning my exit that’d I’d forget to exceute. In case you didn’t get it, laziness has saved my life more than once.

PART THREE: THE WHERE

My family is a family of bants. Dysfunction or no dysfunction, we bant and joke a lot. So one day, my sister and I were having our usual bants and she said, “did they not give birth to you in a herbal clinic?” I know they gave birth to her in a big hospital on the Island so she has bragging rights.

What she said was meant as a joke but because I was still bitter about the circumstances surrounding my birth, I held on to it (like Jesus wasn’t born in a manger). Once again, thank God for light. I’d always think, why did God send me here? Why wasn’t I born in a fancy hospital? I hate it here.

PART FOUR: THE WHY

Why Adejumobi? Why not Funmilayo or Omolola or Temiloluwa?

When I was born, my parents were broke or should I say my Dad was broke since he was the only one working and my mum was a full house wife. Anyhoo, there was no money.

Both my parents have muslim backgrounds (my muslim name is Rekiyah by the way) so they believe in this thing muslims call “suna” that is killing a ram for a new baby and they believe in naming ceremonies. My Daddy doesn’t like parties. He doesn’t even celebrate birthdays but you see naming ceremonies, he rates them highly.

My two older siblings got huge naming ceremonies but when I came, there was no money for even a small party not to talk of a huge one. So the day of the naming ceremony drew closer and there was still nothing. You could say all hope was lost even on the day of the naming ceremony.

But something happened on that same day. People started arriving with gifts. Gifts like baskets of pepper. I mean, you don’t go to a naming ceremony with foodstuff but on my naming ceremony, people came with foodstuff. There’s this my Daddy’s friend that did the most. He calls him Honourable Gbebe. Help came. There was abundance. I got my ram. I got my own huge party.

The first time I heard this story, two emotions flooded me: bitterness and anger. I felt like I brought badluck. I mean, why did I come when my parents were broke? I was totally oblivious to the point God was making with my birth. I was interpreting the story without light.

You see, without light, we’d use our interpretation of our life experiences and circumstances to ensnare ourselves (just like I did).

We expect God to do spectacular things to prove himself in our lives but we don’t actually believe he can do it. So he chooses to do the little things our faith can grasp in a spectacular way but we still miss it. Lol. He comes in so many forms but we don’t see him. The eyes of our heart is closed.

What happened at my naming ceremony may not strike you as something special because it wasn’t dramatic. However, my parents got the message and now, I get it too. That was God staking his claim and literally saying “this one is mine to care for. This one is mine to keep. This one is mine to use. This one is my beloved.”

Most of the people that came with gifts were either not very close to my parents or haven’t been in contact with them for a long time but when the beloved of God needed to have a fantastic naming ceremony, they showed up. Lol. I always say that God likes to show off. If they were family or close friends, it’d have been totally understandable but they weren’t.

Even at eight days old, the LORD was my stay.

I used to be ashamed of this story. It’s why I never told it to anyone and now, I wonder why. What’s there to be ashamed of? The fact that I was making things happen as young as eight days old or the fact that God has always made his intentionality about me obvious?

There are subtle details of my life that used to make absolutely no sense to me. Now, I remember them and all I see is the hand of God.

Adejumobi makes total sense because literally, it means “crowns came together to birth” like a product of many crowns. I am royalty. I call myself a community project because I belong to more than just my family. Hence, it’d take more than just my family to support my growth.

The name — Adejumobi — acknowledges the help that came from many places because a child’s christening is just as significant as the birth. As a matter of fact, it is part of the birth process. Therefore, these people God used on the day of my christening were part of my birth process. So, by naming me Adejumobi, my parents were simply saying “this is the child we came together — with our crowns — to birth” “this is our child” “this is our baby”.

Adejumobi because when my parents were at the end of themselves, God proved himself as a father through many other parents. David said “they prevented me in the day of my calamity but the LORD was my stay” Psalms 18 vs 18. I randomly stumbled across Psalms 18 and it was as though God was directly speaking to me.

You might be thinking, who are the they? What’s the calamity? Lol. What you should focus on is that regardless of the “they” and “the calamity”, the LORD is my stay. Remember that the LORD is your stay.

There’s a Yoruba proverb: Ajumobi okan taanu. Eni Olorun ba ran sini lo seni loore. It means that blood relationships don’t guarantee help. Only the ones God has sent to you will help you.

Don’t limit God. You’re resenting your parents and your siblings because you think they can and should do better for you. Lol. If a raven can feed Elijah in the wilderness, what makes you think a stranger can not grant the desires of your heart. Remember, God has the hearts of kings and chiefs in his hands and he’s your Ebenezer.

God has been strategically placing people and help in my life. He’s been reaching out to me in different ways but I couldn’t see him or what he was doing because I didn’t know who I was or who he was for that matter.

I was just on my own, struggling. Lol.

Lol. You’re not exactly the one writing your story but you’re certainly the one telling it and how you tell it is just as important if not even more important than the story itself.

What I’m saying is, those unpleasant experiences that vex you in your spirit, study them closely. Those ones that seem insignificant, study them closely. Nothing in your life is accidental. God is too much of a masterplanner to leave anything to chance. God didn’t create you to struggle. So if you’re struggling with your circumstances and life experiences, you’re missing something. Ask God to help you see.

I’m not saying everything will make total sense at once or God will snap his fingers and boom! All your troubles are gone. Lol. It may or may not make sense all at once but when you see, you’d stop struggling. You’d start living from a place of light. Your faith will be established. You will learn to trust because you’ve seen and you know.

It doesn’t have to be your birth story but one of your stories will definitely strike you as you study them closely. When you get the first one, the others will begin to make sense. See, God is mindful of you. He’s intentional about you.

PART FIVE: THE WHO

I’ve told you about the what, the when, the where and the why but not the who? What is the who?

Who is Adejumobi? The answer to this question is my name still: Ayanfeoluwanimi. Adejumobi is God’s beloved. There’s more to write about this but now is not the time. I’m super excited about what God is doing with my life and my heart. In the days to come, I won’t have to tell you the things he’s doing. You’d see them for yourself. But of course, I’m a writer so I’d most likely still write them for record sake and to build our faith.

You need to understand that God is intentional about you. You have a purpose. You have a place. He knows your name and he loves you. So much. More than your mind will ever be able to conceive. He doesn’t want you to just breeze through life or merely exist. He wants you to have life and have it in full.

I decided to share this story because now I see. I’m getting closer to God and the closer I get to him, the better I understand who I am. My identity can only be found in him. I’m no longer living on vibes. I’m grounded in the truth. I’m living the life. So when I declare words like “I’m a child of abundance” I understand that it is my reality; it’s who I am.

I now understand that nature responds to my needs. People respond to my needs. The earth yields forth its increase to me. I represent prosperity and abundance. I now understand that when I give to people, they receive much more and when people give to me, they receive so much more.

Everyone has a special grace (graces even) of God upon their lives and the more we honor people and the graces upon their lives, the more we enjoy them. Don’t even dare try to look down on anybody. God is intentional and full of love for each and everyone of us. Nobody anywhere is receiving exclusive love. We’re all his babies.

Although I find it really sad that most times, when we don’t have a close relationship with God, these special graces, the areas we’re supposed to naturally flourish in are the areas we tend to struggle with the most.

Omo. We think we know until God shows us. We think we’ve found rest until we lay on Jesus’s bosom. We think we’ve seen it all until we catch a glimpse of God’s plan for our lives. See, nothing that pertains to you is a mistake or a coincidence. God has a plan for you and trust me, it’s an incredible plan because God has no business with mediocrity. And oh, how he loves us. (Scriming.)

Yours gracefully, scrimingly, lovingly and abundantly,

Adejumobi Ayanfeoluwanimi Agunloye.

P.S: Ayanfeoluwanimi has a backstory too but not today.

P.S again: pleaseeeeee listen to “How he loves us by Shane by Shane”. Listen and bask in the love of God (scrimmmmssss).