Officially a Family of 5

We had kind of a long night last night. Maria was up and down coughing all night and didn’t let the family get too much sleep. After breakfast, we took her to the English speaking doctor a few blocks away. Andres stayed behind with the El Refugio women. Turns out that Maria has a slight case of bronchitis and may have a stomach parasite. We have to return tomorrow with a “sample” for the lab to analyze. Maria got some kind of inhaler and liquid medicine and actually seems to be doing a little better today. On the way back, we stopped at the Nike store and got Luke the soccer ball he has had his eye one almost since we got here. It's pretty neat. It's yellow and purple and has the names and flags of all of the South American and Latin American countries on it. A good souvenir from Colombia.

After our morning adventure to the doctor, it was decided that both Traci and I would go to Zipaquira to get the final adoption decree and then go to Susa to get the new birth certificates. We didn’t want to bring the kids out that way for fear of running into someone or traumatizing them. We were a little on the fence about whether to take Luke, but he decided at the last minute he wanted to stay. We told him it was going to take at least 4 hours, but he had a new Nintendo game so he though he would be alright.

They fed us an early lunch (12:30) which consisted of a potato and rice soup (always soup with the lunch), fried fish and salad. Luke ate none of it, but the ninos did fairly well. Traci and I ate what we could before we left but we were busy making sure the kids were fed and that we weren’t forgetting anything. It would be a real bummer to drive all of the way to Zipaquira or Susa and find out you forgot something. Our ride, a taxi driver who CHI and El Refugio seems to always use, and Oscar showed up at 1:00 p.m. We left the kids in the good hands of the people at El Refugio and left for our first stop, Zipaquira.

We had been here just a couple days before but without kids jumping around the car, it was nice just to kind of sight see along the way. If you ever come to Bogota and don’t take a trip out into the countryside, you are really missing out. Traci and I have been a lot of places, but the countryside around Bogota is some of the most amazing and beautiful scenery we have ever seen. I can't even compare it to anyplace i have seen before - It is that unique. We tried to snap a few pictures in the car along the way, but they really do not do the landscape justice. It’s kind of one of those things you just have to see for yourself.








Here are some people working in one of the fields along the slopes of one of the more modest mountains.

These pictures didn't turn out that great but this is a really pretty church in Ubate which is between Zipaquira and Susa. We saw it again at night on the way home when it was lit up and it was probably even more impressive looking.


Here is a picture of one of the many little brick making factories that line the roads right outside of Ubate. As explained long ago, this region is very good for making bricks because of the clay soil and the coal burried in the ground. You will notice, most of the buildings are made of brick and have clay tile roofs.


What these pictures really miss are the millions of little things we noticed along the way. Like how little shops along the road in Ubate have clay pots for sale outside, but as you get closer to Susa they have straw baskets. There was a little home along the side of the road with a small patch of corn they were growing next door which had a statute of the Virgin Mary in it (patron saint of corn?). There was a small lake near Susa that had a (fake) dinosaur standing along the edge. I could probably spend a couple days driving between Bogota and Susa snapping pictures of interesting little things. We are still tring to figure that one out as we didn't seen any other buildings of note nearby.

About three hours into our trip, Oscar got a call on his cell phone and handed it to Traci. It was Luke back at the compound wondering where we were at and why it was taking so long. We told him that we were just arriving in Susa and that we would be home in a couple more hours. He was already missing us and starting to get a little nervous. I can sort of see why. He's all alone in a foregin country, where nobody speaks his language (including his new brother and sister), and would be pretty freaked out if something were to happen to us. Nevertheless, we were in good hands with Oscar and our taxi driver.

I should also mention at this point that the roads between Zipaquira and Susa are curvy, two-lane, mountain roads that sometimes go up and down. Once in a while, you get a big truck or just some clunker trying to get up the hill in front of you at about 5-10 mph and you have to pass. They do have the "no-passing" stripes in appropriate areas on the roads here like in the U.S., but there are apparently merely a suggestion in Colombia. Our driver was pretty cautious, but others were clearly out of their minds - particularly the guys on motorcycles. It was just a little scary heading to Susa, but coming home in the dark we just about saw 3-4 fatalities. Looking back in my mind, I am kind of surprised we didn't see any wreckage laying along the side of the road. There has to have been quite a few crashes in the last several weeks if tonight's activity was any indication of how things are done around here.

We were initially a little concerned that our 2:00 p.m. appointment with the court would put us in a time crunch. However, the signing of the adoption decree and getting copies made only took about 45 minutes, maybe a little more. Oscar, our attorney, was pretty thorough about making sure everything was right. After that mere formality was completed (what would really have been considered the “sentencia” was our meeting with the judge two days earier), we headed off to Susa where Maria and Andres were born.

I had looked up Susa on Google Maps several times in the past (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=susa%2C%20colombia&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl). It is a mere speck of a town hidden away in the mountains of Colombia. Still, it is hard to get any details about a town of this size from a satellite soaring hundred of miles overhead. We were both anxious to get there.

We arrived in Susa at about 4 p.m. and parked in the main city square in front of this little local radio station.

The radio station sits right next to the "big" church which is also on the square.


In the middle of the square is a garden (also seen above in the foreground of the church) which is surrounded by paved areas where lots of kids were playing basketball and soccer. Looking at these kids, it kind of made me wonder if any of them would have been Maria's and Andres' friends had they been allowed to grow up in Susa.




The office of civil records was on the opposite side (SW corner if looking at the map)of the square from where we parked. It was just a tiny, old three story building that blended in with the rest of the places on the square. Once inside, Oscar got to work with the clerk there to get new birth certificates issued. Either Oscar had been here a few times before or he is just a really nice guy. Everyone seems happy to see him and he greets people like has known them for years. It took about 45 minutes to get all of this comleted. I asked Traci if it wouldn't be easier if they just whited out the old names. It kind of dawned on us that it is a little weird to get new birth certificates issued. I mean, we weren't there at birth. An addendum of some kind seemed more fitting.

Here is the crack staff working away on getting the new certificates issued.

And here we have them. It is now official - Maria and Andres are part of the Jensen family.

While Oscar took a few minutes to straighten some more things away, I leaned out the open window to take a few more pictures of the activity in the square and up and down the road.




This is just some random dog stiffing what someone spilled. I don't know what it was that was spilled but there were quite a few random dogs in the square and they all stopped to have a smell.

A couple of girls in their school uniforms having ice cream with the garden and church in the background.

There were a few old guys on bikes with ponchos that passed by our window. I thought they looked interesting and really liked those ponchos. When I told Traci I wanted one before I leave, she asked what for? Why, grilling out, having a glass of wine on the deck, any time I might get a chill. I think I could turn the poncho thing into a whole new fad in Kansas. Kind of like crocks. They look rediculous at first but when you put one on it feels pretty good.


And a few more random shots as we were walking to our taxi.





Susa may seem a little run down to some, but I thought it was a quaint little village. In fact, surrounded by mountains, I would go so far as to say that it was a beautiful little town. I almost felt a little bad about taking Maria and Andres away from such a beatiful area. But they will both thrive in our home in Kansas and have many more opportunities available to them - not to mention a family that truly loves them. Driving home and looking at all of the little homes and farms, I commented to Traci that I know the people around here live and work hard, but I find the setting here to be a bit relaxing.

It gets dark here in Colombia at around 6:30 and we didn't get to see too much more on the way home. We did see that some people we congregating on the front porches of their homes and it looked like everyone was coming home from work. Not too far out of Susa, we called Luke back at the compound to let him know we were on our way. I think he called us one other time too but I can't remember where that fits in. He was concerned pretty much the whole time we were gone. I guess he even called Papa Bill in the States to express some concern (which I would imagine caused a minor freak-out on Papa Bill's part too).

We also got stopped twice by the police on the drive home. In Colombia, they have these random road blocks where the police (which look like military with green fatigues and lagre caliber weapons) randomly ask cars to pull over to the side of the road. Sometimes they look inside but they usually just ask the driver what he is doing and where he is going. I'm not 100% sure what the point of these is, but I can speculate on a million things.

We also stopped off at Lucia's condo so that Oscar could drop off the papers we gathered today. She lives not too far from El Refugio in a pretty nice little place - at least it looks nice from the outside (it is also real close to the doctor's office). When we arrived home, all of the kids were extremely glad to see us. I guess some of the other El Refugio residents helped out in looking after them. We heard from a couple that Luke and Maria were pretty concerned while Andres was just Andres - smiling and happy.

They saved dinner for us with was like beef stroganoff with rice (naturally). There was also some kind of side which looked like baked tomatoes cut in half with cheese on them. Neither Traci not I are tomato people, but I tried a little and it wasn't bad. Dessert was fresh mango. I shared mine with Maria who can't get enough of that stuff.

I had a feeling that Luke was much too nervous to enjoy his dinner. So, as a reward for being such a good big brother and holding down the fort while we were away, we snuck out and went to McDonald's. I told him about our day and he told me about his. Everything did seem to go just fine and he seemed to relax a little more. He got a chicken nuggets kids meal and I got a cheesebuger. Even though I wasn't hungry, I wanted a little taste of home too.

As for tomorrow and the rest of our schedule, we still haven't heard from Lucia but we are hoping we can go get Colombian passports for Maria and Andres tomorrow. We also need to get them physicals. If we can do that, we are on target for visiting the U.S. embassy on Monday and possibly coming home Wednesday night. We still haven't made arrangments with Delta and probably will not until we have passports in hand. Wish us luck for tomorrow. Whoever out there is doing the praying, it seems to be working so keep it up.