The Jensens

We Made it!

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Sat, 23 May 2009 23:38:00 +0000

I'm embarrassed at how long it's been since I last wrote, but we've experienced our first Easter together, Andres' had his 3rd birthday (the first one to be with us!), I got to experience my first Mother's Day with 3 kids rather than just 1, and we've celebrated our Family Day as May 19 marked a year ago that we got them. Easter was great. The kids really enjoyed all of the baskets and egg hunts. We had one egg hunt at home when the kids woke up that morning and another one later in the day. Dre pretty much understood what to do from the moment the first one began started. Maria, on the other hand, understood when we were at home, but when we got to an outdoor egg hunt, she slowly walked around to look at all of the pretty eggs and before long, most of the eggs were gone Then tears came. Hopefully she'll have better luck next year. ; ) A week before Easter, I got a call from pre-school that Andres was running and fell, hitting is head onto the cross bar of a wooden fence. So I left work to go see how bad it was. When I walked into the pre-school office, the poor guy was covered with blood on his shirt, had an extremely swollen eye with an ice pack on it, but he was sitting in one of the director's laps eating lunch with a smile on his face. How apropos! I don't know why I would expect him to be any different. His eyebrow had been laid open pretty good so my doctor recommended that I come in to his office to see if Dre needed plastic surgery. If he did, my doctor would refer us to the surgeon and we would head to the hospital. If he didn't need plastic surgery, the doctor said he could save me the inflated costs of the emergency room and he could stitch up Dre's eye in the office. Fortunately, even though the gash was pretty open, the doctor stitched it in his office. Dre was incredibly brave! He cried very lightly the whole time and did not move a wink. The nurse kept saying that she had never seen a 2 y/o be so cooperative and so still. Which made me, once again, question how much he has been through in his past. What a sweetheart! I was so proud of him. I somehow knew, though, that this would not be the last trip to the doctor for a mishap.

More goofing around than egg dying

Hunt #1 at home--Eggs from the Easter bunny

Gifts from Nana Judy and Papa Denny

Too funny!

Dre and Mami

Luke, Maria and Andres--1 year ago in Cartegena

1 year later celebrating Easter together for the first time

Maria figuring out the Easter egg hunt after the eggs were gone

But Dre got it from the moment it began

Easter bunny impression with a good shot of his eye after stitch removal

Papa Bill showing the kids domino tricks on Easter

Kids with grandparents and Andres pouting since we took him away from his Easter basket

Kids with Grandparents on Easter

The Jensen 5--one year ago in Bogota

The Jensen Family on Easter 2009

Maria loved this Easter gift--a shirt made by Nana Sharon for Princess Maria

Andres' 3rd birthday was on April 25th and it was so much fun. When I look at him now versus when we got him, he looks SO much older and is quite a bit heavier---I think 10 lbs. heavier! Becoming three continues to bring a lot of orneriness and curiosity with it. He found a large, white, plastic object and shoved it us his nose--and I mean really shoved it up his nose. It was so high up in there I couldn't reach it with tweezers so in one last-ditch effort to save us from another doctor's visit, I made him blow his nose harder than ever before, and thank goodness it shot out! Whew! The good news is that his birthday went off without any injuries. We had to squeeze it in between Big Brother Luke's baseball games, but he didn't care one bit. He absolutely loved his Elmo cupcake cake and his Elmo hat. All of his gifts lit up his face as most were Diego toys. He LOVES Diego. Matter of fact, a side note, one day at pre-school, he was playing with one of his friends and told his teacher he needed to go potty. When Andres went inside, his friend became quite sad. His friend waited and waited and waited for Dre to return. Finally, Dre cam running back out on the playground and his little friend went running after him with arms wide open saying, "Diego!!!" So, often times around the house, not only will you hear us call him Andres, Dre Dre, or Dre, but you will also hear Diego. Especially when he is playing with Maria when he is Diego and she is Dora. For some reason, I am always Boots or Tico. Not sure what that says about me. : ) Anyway, he had a great birthday and we got him a motorized car to ride on. He's in heaven!

The infamous foreign object that went up the nose--notice the tear on the chin!

Dre--1 year ago in Bogota

Our beautiful 3 year-old on his first birthday experience with us!

Mami and Papi thrilled to be spending Andres' first birthday celebration with him

Birthday boy with his Elmo cupcake cake

Maria "reading" the birthday card that she made for Andres

Help from Big Brother on the new motorized car

While Mother's Day was nice--church, breakfast with family and a soccer game--I really reflected a lot on Maria and Andres' mom. It's so sad that she can't see what beautiful children they are, how happy they are. She's truly missing out on so much and she just has to know it inside. Hopefully, someday, if the kids want to, we can find their birth mother and she can see firsthand what tremendous kids they are! They are both doing so well. Andres is finally talking in short sentences that are sometimes even comprehendable! YEAH!!! He will be going to pre-school next year in our local school district for four 1/2 days each week and receiving services to help him get caught up with other three year olds. I have no doubt he will be fine by kindergarten. He goes non-stop and wears me out most days. Maria is still working hard on her speech. She still gets a lot of her sounds transposed and mixed up but overall, she has come miles. Her speech teachers have decided it's time to place less emphasis on her pronunciation and start focusing a little more on her grammar. As a former English teacher, you can imagine how happy that made me. I try hard with her, but she's learning so much in such a short time, I think it's brain overload. She will be going to full-day kindergarten next year which I think will be a perfect spot for her. This will give her more time and more repetition to learn the basics. She continues to excel in soccer and is now trying t-ball and loves it all. And she is really into fashion! She got some money for her birthday and she took it with her one day when we went to Wal-Mart. I expected her to buy a Dora toy or something like that, but instead, she bought a shiny pair of yellow sandals. I had to laugh. If I didn't know better, I would think she is a direct descendant of her Nana Sharon! I just couldn't be more proud of these two, and of course, Luke as well. He's about to wrap up 3rd grade. We've had a lot of fun reminiscing about life a year ago and how much it has changed for him. He is an excellent big brother ( as I think I say in EVERY posting) and he is tremendous student! Between Maria's soccer and softball and Luke's soccer and baseball, weekends are definitely busy but fun. I swear there are times when Luke runs out onto the baseball field and I just can't believe that I'm seeing what I'm seeing. He has grown quite a bit this year (although still a bean pole with little muscles) and his feet have already caught up with mine. Such a funny stage to see a boy with skis for shoes! He's also been working really hard with Cub Scouts and is now a Webelo. He and his dad have a good time doing the campouts together. They'll have another one this summer the weekend of the CHI Colombian reunion in St. Louis. So, while I hate that Luke won't be able to go and meet all the other Colombian children we have followed, I am planning on taking Maria and Andres to St. Louis. Should be a fun weekend to finally meet people that I feel like I already know but have never met face-to-face.

Finally, on May 19, we had our first Family Day together. Since Matt was not going to be able to be with us on the actual day, we decided to take the kids to the Royals baseball game the Saturday before it. It was a great family outing as we explored our new baseball field with an incredible amount of kids activities within the ballpark. We only watched about an inning before taking the kids to explore. As always, a little excitement must be thrown into the evening, and I'll given you one guess who always creates it. . .yes, Andres. He was climbing on some metal bleachers and fell, smacking his OTHER eye and cutting the eyebrow open. Now keep in mind, he just got his stitches out of his other eye approximately 4 weeks prior to this. Fortunately, he did not need stitches, but he got to visit the First Aid office of the stadium and getting a Royals pin for being so brave. After that, we were actually able to go enjoy the last few innings of the game as Andres sat on Papi's lap.

The Jensen 5 at the K

Pretty sure they just don't get any cuter!

Andres saw the A and excitedly screamed, "A for Andres!"

So you can see that someone else had to follow suit!

Always happy

Maria's big hit

Maria and Andres 1 year ago in Bogota

Maria and Andres 1 year later at their first Kansas City Royals game ( and minutes before eye injury #2)

All smiles in First Aid

What is this sticky stuff!!?? At least it got his mind off of his eye.

After enough excitement for one night, going home

For our actual Family Day, the kids and I sorted and packaged all of the donated items for our Family Service project for the CVI orphanage in Bogota. We were able to collect over $200 and 4000 individual items to send. Maria was so proud that she was trying to tell people what all of our boxes were for when were waiting in line at the post office. . . "These boxes are for all the kids who don't have Mami's and Papi's." Just a priceless time and I can't tell you how much joy I got out of watching the kids get excited about each and every item we package. I never could have imagined how much gratification they would actually experience from donating items rather than receiving items for themselves, especially Luke. He really enjoyed collecting items from his class and I was so proud of how he went into his classroom and led them in a service project. What a selfless gesture my kids have learned. We ended our Family Day with dinner out at the place of their choice which is always Mexican food. This time we actually splurged and ordered sopapillas. Not something we normally do as we are always too full to eat our complete meals. But this time, who cared? It was our Family Day and we deserved to celebrate!

Sorting all of the donated items

Dre excited to find a Diego toothbrush

Mailing donations at the post office

Family Day dinner

Preparing for a Memorable Family Day

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:25:00 +0000

As our first "Family Day" approaches, we have thought a lot about what we want to do to celebrate. But when it gets right down to it, not only is the day about us being together for a year, but it's also about honoring a country who trusted us to take care of their children. On May 19, we will be celebrating our first year together as a family of five. We are eternally grateful to Colombia, South America, for Maria and Andres. The sad realization is that we have learned that on the streets of Bogotá, Colombia, there are approximately 13,000 children without a home and most have no one to care for them. In Maria and Andres’ honor, we have decided to help the Colombian children still waiting for their “forever” families. In order to do this, we have teamed up with Children's Vision International, an American-based organization, that has heard the cries of those homeless children. CVI helps to provide safe, loving homes to these orphans. (For more information, you can go to www.childrensvision.org) Currently, CVI has built three homes for these children and are currently in the process of building a school all in Colombia, South America.

From now until May 18, 2009, our family will be collecting monetary donations or items for children between the ages of 0-18 years to take care of Colombian children just like Maria and Andres. The items include toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, combs, hair brushes, ponytail holders, bandaids, cotton balls, Q-Tips, lotion, shampoo, soap, clothing, socks, underwear, shoes, blankets, clocks, calculators, pens, pencils, books in Spanish.

On our May 19^th Family Day, we will package these items and send them to CVI. We are so excited to teach our children the value of serving others and helping those in need. To see how our Family Service Project is progressing, we will update the side of our blog showing what all has been collected. Thanks to all of our family and friends for continuing to support us through this incredible journey. And a special thank you to the students and staff at my high school as well as Luke's teacher and 3rd grade class for their selfless donations and excitement to support this project. It is so wonderful to see our future leaders jump aboard and get into the spirit of giving to others!

Finally, "It's my Happy Birthday!" and much more

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:12:00 +0000

Well, a lot has happened as you will see below. But mostly, for the past 6 weeks, we have been fighting colds, ear infections, bronchitis and then crazy weather changes that induce allergies. I had to take a week off of work when the kids were sick, and then two weeks after that, I went in for "minor" surgery that ended up making me miss two more weeks of work. Thankfully, I am finally starting to feel like I am recovering! That will be the last time I translate "minor" surgery as meaning short recovery period! So, I have not had a lot of time to update. Anyway, as I mentioned, Maria and Andres were pretty sick at the beginning of February. Here is Dre, as always, with a smile on his face. He was a real trooper enduring three weeks of these breathing treatments, three times a day!

Before all of the sickness began, Luke participated in the annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. For all who have never done this, there is a LOT of fretting and stewing (mostly by Matt) as to what the car should look like, how it should be shaped, where the weights should go, etc. More than I'm sure I can understand. Also, Matt has organized this event for the Pack the past two years. So kudos to him as well for pulling off the event. Andres especially loved it due to all of the cars racing in front of his eyes.

This kids are really enjoying spending time with their grandparents. It is so fun to see these relationships deepen and all of the great times they are sharing together. Maria is constantly asking us if she can go stay the night with the grandparents, and most of the time they oblige which makes her sooooo happy! Here are a few picks with the "Papa's" and the kids.

Dre loves Papa Ronnie!

And Papa Bill is extra special, too!

We've also had the pleasure of continuing to introduce our kids to various people. Most recently, we were able to get together with another family from Kansas City who just brought two kids home from Colombia--the boy is Luke's age, the girl is Maria's age. We had a great time with the Bond family and hope to continue building that friendship.

Our first Valentine's Day together was wonderful! Maria and Andres really enjoyed it. Maria mostly due to the fact that she adored her heart dress, earrings and necklace that she got to wear. Andres loved the Valentine's bags that their gifts were in. I don't even know if he knew there were gifts in them, but hey, his enjoyment helped me to get my money's worth out of the bag. ; ) After going to Luke's basketball game, which is always fun, we were fortunate enough to be able to take the kids to Border's to pick out a special book for each and then to the Cheesecake Factory that evening. It was a very special day and so much love was shared by all!

All three kids are doing so well. Luke really enjoys teaching the kids new things and reading stories to them. I constantly hear him working with them on how to say words correctly. He is such a great age to be a big brother and Maria and Andres adore him. We would have missed out on so much of Luke's compassion if he had remained an only child. Maria continues to grow like a weed. The other day, I was looking at pictures from when we got her in Colombia. She looked so little then, but there are still days where I see glimpses of that fragile little girl who longs to be loved. She follows me every where I go just because she likes to be close and give me hugs. Not a day goes by where she doesn't tell me that she loves me at least ten times, and she constantly seeks approval. We are so proud of how well she has done with learning English. While she doesn't speak it 100% clearly due to her speech issues, she has an amazing command of it in such a short time. Andres is really beginning to take off with his speaking, finally. He is much more difficult to understand as he has many speech issues, but he's really beginning to get the cadence of syllables and emphasizes the right parts of words. He has even said some 3-4 word sentences which is HUGE! We are so proud of him! As Luke continues to have interests in his sports, Maria loves her dance and soccer. And Andres, well, he loves everything and will participate in whatever anyone wants to do. Most recently, though, he has become infatuated with dressing up in hats, gloves and snow boots. This can cause problems at times as we are potty training! After Andres was really sick, the doctor requested that we take him off of dairy, and what a huge difference it's made. He's been going "popo" (the Colombian word, not ours) in the potty for about two weeks now. So while we've been on Spring Break, I have had him in underwear running around the house. I think I pressed my luck yesterday when we went out to run errands. As we stood in the check out line for our final errand, he had an accident. But each day brings a clean slate, and so far today, there have been no accidents. So this story will be continued. . .nevertheless, we are proud of him!

Dre in potty training mode

One of the most exciting things to happen over the past month was Maria's 5th birthday on March 14th, and what a day it was! For the month leading up to her birthday, she was constantly going around telling everyone--us, her friends, teachers, grandparents and strangers--that, "It's my HAPPY BIRTHDAY on March 14th!" I tried to teach her that we leave out the "HAPPY" when telling people, but she kept doing it, and honestly, it's just too darn cute to change it. She is really into princesses right now so we went with a princess theme even though she is a real tomboy at times!

Soccer princess

So we went with it! I thought she'd have fun dressing up in a pretty dress and I surprised her with some princess accessories before her party which included--sparkly shoes, a tiara and a princess sash. She LOVED it! She also loved her cake that I made. We watched the video on how to make the cake over and over again on BettyCrocker.com and she could barely contain her excitement each time. It was a very special day that brought so much joy. However, at the same time, I was a little heavy-hearted because there was no doubt in my mind that her foster family had to have been missing her that day. After they spent her 2nd and 3rd birthdays with her, they know how special Maria makes the day with her smiles, squeals and laughs. I can only imagine the hole that they felt in their hearts that day was equivalent to the fullness that mine felt by being a part of her special day for the first time.

She made a beautiful princess and insisted that she be called Princess Ariel since that's her favorite one

What a hit this "princess" birthday card was from Nana Judy and Papa Denny. Maria took it to bed with her the first three nights so she could listen to the music as it played over and over again. And even more precious, she still dances to it over and over again with such heart-felt movements. Truly priceless!

What a beautiful little girl--how lucky are we!!??

Ok, I have to admit the princess thing was taken way overboard, but oh did she eat it up!

And this may have been her most prized possession of the birthday party. You would have thought that I gave her the moon. She continues to tell people that her birthday was fun, that she's five now and, "My mommy made me a princess cake!" SHe even seems to think in her mind that BECAUSE I made her a birthday cake, she turned five. ; )

The only other member of the family I tend to leave off in the updates is our 15 1/2 year old dog, Max. He has been so good with the kids and they went from being scared of him to loving him. Unfortunately, he is really starting to show his age. (Wouldn't we all at 108 1/2 people years?) In the past year, his vision has begun to fail as has his hearing. It wasn't until about a month ago when he started randomly losing full function of his back legs. It doesn't happen all of the time but he is clearly getting to that stage that I have dreaded. After all, before Matt and all three kids were here, Max was in my life. So say a few prayers for him (and me) as it will be a difficult day when he has finally had enough. The only comfort I find is knowing that my grandparents will be there to scoop him up when he arrives in heaven.

Max

Finally, to end on a positive note, I once again, have to point out what an incredible journey adoption is. It has profoundly changed my life in ways that I can not understand or express. However, I occasionally take a picture where I sit back and say to myself, "This is how adoption enriches." Without God leading us down the path to Colombia, I never would have had the honor of feeling the joy that events like this bring to me. Thank you for continuing to follow us through this AMAZING blessing!

Brothers forever

The Calling of a Mother

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:59:00 +0000

I'm going on night #4 without solid sleep. Fatigued? Exhausted? Yes, so why am I sitting up at 3:30am and blogging, right? I guess it's a case of being so tired that I can't sleep or maybe it's because when I only work a few days a week and I have to miss more than one of those days, I get a little stressed. But I think it's mostly because I hurt when my kids hurt. No one can ever prepare a mom for that pain. Nevertheless, there's no place I would rather be than right here with my sick kids. Andres started me off with the first 3 nights of no solid sleep. Poor guy started in with a really bad cough and some congestion. By the time Monday rolled around, he was pretty miserable, even though he can still break out smiles even when feeling his worst. : ) We found out he has severe bronchitis and is doing three breathing treatments a day. The hardest part is seeing him put his arms across his chest when he coughs and saying "Owie!" There's nothing I can do but hold him tight and tell him it will get better. It will, right? He's still not doing all that great. His low-grade fever came back yesterday and his breathing is still somewhat labored. Let's hope today, Wednesday, brings better things his way! I prayed when I went to bed Tuesday evening (just a few hours ago) that I would get a night of solid sleep. BUt guess what? If there's anything that having kids has taught me, I am not in control! I woke up at 1:30am, a few hours ago, to soft whimpers. I thought it was Andres again. Strike one--I was surprised to see that they were coming from Maria's room. I stood outside her door for a minute because I thought maybe she was working through a dream. Strike two--instead her whimpers increased and I went in to discover that she was having a horrible earache. So what's a mom to do? I'd already used up two strikes and didn't want to get my third. My first reaction? Call Mom! I remember her giving me some home remedy when I was a little girl to help with my earaches that occurred in the middle of the night. But reality hit--oh wait, it's almost 2am. I can't call my mom and scare the daylights out of her! So thank goodness for the internet and Google searches. Now, here I sit, and wait patiently, to make sure that some Tylenol, flushing of hydrogen peroxide sitting in the ear for 10 minutes, and a few drops of warm olive oil are going to work. So far, we've gone 10 minutes and I hear nothing from Maria's room. Let's hope that she can get her through the night so I can take her to the doctor's office first thing. Until then, I sit here and hurt, wishing I could administer a cure, when all I can do is fulfill the calling of being a mom and comfort her if the pain returns. And unfortunately, I think I hear her calling. . .

A New Year with Our New Family

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:09:00 +0000

Now that the holidays are behind us and a new year has begun, it's fun to reflect back on the highlights of yet another "first" for our family--our first holiday season together--and boy was it busy! After having our first cookie bake (annually done by my mom and me), going to a "special" schools out lunch with me, attending four Christmas celebrations (2 in Kansas City, 2 in Iowa), celebrating Matt's 40th birthday, going to our first New Year's Even party as a family of five, and Luke and I attending a KU basketball game, we were all quite tired and needed a few extra days to get back to normal--normal days, normal sleeping, normal eating. And then it seemed like we blinked and school was back in session. Rather than tell you how wonderful the holidays were, I'll let the pictures highlight the two weeks I had with the kids and the blessed celebration it was for our family. May you have a wonderfully happy and healthy 2009!

My mom and I thought we would initiate the kids into our annual cookie bake. Unfortuantely, Luke was in school.

Maria--playing the part of chef

Well, Andres didn't last long. He was more interested in playing with a Scooby Doo car and Freddie.

We decided to celebrate that school was out by going to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch. As you can see on Luke and Maria's faces, we had a great time being together.

Andres always has been and continues to be my little love-bug. He gives me more kisses than I can count each and every day. This one just so happens to be a "Thank you" kiss for the free chips and salsa that was delivered to our table. : )

I had to include this as a way of showing how the generosity of others continues to rain upon us. People ask us all the time how the kids are doing, and I know lately I have been saying that they are growing like weeds. Maria can't seem to stay in her clothes for more than three weeks. She's gone from a 4 and 4T to a 5T and now a 5/6 in less than 6 weeks. Unfortunately, the majority of our hand-me down clothes are from people who have boys. So, I have had to try to fill in with a few things here and there for Maria when we have the extra money. When a lady at my work learned of this, she went and bought Maria THREE brand new, complete outfits. She was soooo excited (as was I!) and she did a little fashion show of her new clothes. She loved them all but really lit up when she tried this hot pink sweat suit on. Thank you so much, Kathy, for your incredible kindness and generosity. You can see that you made this little girl's day!

Hands down, without a doubt, my FAVORITE picture of the holidays! This is a beautiful, red-velvet dress and hat that I had made in Colombia while we were there adopting Maria and Andres. I knew I wanted something special and timeless that reflected her heritage. When I bought it, I hoped that not only could she wear it for her first Chritmas with us but that it would maybe be something she could hold onto and have her little girl wear some day. I knew she would be beautiful in it but when I saw how beautiful she was after dressing her for Christmas Eve, she took my breath away.

Wherever there is food, you will ALWAYS find these two!

Here was one of Dre's favorite gifts of the evening--three, singing snowmen. It was tough when I had to pack them in a box so that they could "sleep" until the next holiday season.

God has blessed us with three, beautiful children. We are so grateful!

The Jensen 5 on Christmas Eve at my dad and step mom's house

At one point, before we began our huge opening of gifts with extended family, Maria sat down and quietly stared into the fire. It's times like these where you really wonder what she's thinking.

The heart-warmer of the night. . . when Andres got down on the floor and became intrigued with the Nativity scene.

After finding and shouting "Baby Jesus!" he wanted to know all of the people in the scene

I'm pretty sure this is the first jewelry box Maria has ever had. She couldn't keep her eyes off of it as Mimi showed her that it had her name on top and a twirling ballerina inside that played music. Thanks B and Daddy Bruce!

Christmas morning--the kids indulging mom with some pictures before the opening frenzy began

It was so cute--when Maria and Andres saw that they had matching puzzles, they squealed with excitement.

Luke with his big gift from Santa.

Dre loves all of the Fisher Price Little People toys and Santa delivered! He couldn't wait to open the box. Thank goodness this was his last gift. Every time he would open a present, we had to practically bribe him to put it down and open another present. He would have been just as happy with one gift. Maybe that should be a lesson for all of us.

Maria calling Santa to thank him for her "cool" kitchen

My dad recently had a hip replacement and is having to walk around with a cane. Maria and Andres wanted to show him that they, too, think that walking with a cane is cool.

Not sure at what time of the day this is but it looks like Maria is about worn out. Luke, on the other hand, looks like he could go for another round of opening gifts.

Christmas Day attire--I was able to find a matching set of dresses for Maria and her American Doll Bitty Baby. She thought this was so special.

Maria is the defintion of "HELPER." She loves to help with everything around the house, but one of her very favorite things is to wash dishes. After Christmas dinner, she insisted on helping to clean all of the dishes. I love the way she's on her tiptoes, determined to be tall enough to get in there and do her job. She's such a doll and a wonderfully sweet little girl!

Hard at work

When we went to Iowa for a Christmas celebration, we stayed in a hotel with a pool. Andres was not excited about getting into a cold pool.

Luke and Maria having a much better time swimming

Maria, Luke and Andres with their cousin, Audrey in Iowa

New Year's Eve 2008

Andres wasn't sure what to think when we all began celebrating at the stroke of midnight

Maria hopped right in and saw what to do

I'm tired of paying $16 for a two-year old's hair cut so I attempted my first haircut ever. I didn't even look at him until I was finished for fear that I really screwed up! I think Andres was wondering what in the heck I did, too.

Thumbs up on the buzz cut

Matt's 40th

Woah! Look at the smoke a 40-year old can produce when blowing out candles!

Thank you, Tim and Lisa, for the tickets to the KU v. Tennessee game. What a great time Luke and I had, especially seeing the new, 2008 NCAA National Champions banner!

Luke and I before the KU v. Tenn game

Luke at Allen Field House

Luke standing with "The Phog!"

A Whole New Meaning to Thankful

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:10:00 +0000

Our first real road trip is now behind us. For about the past 10 years, for Thanksgiving we fly to Chicago and spend it with Matt's parents, brother, sister-in-law and nieces. But with two more bodies to pay for, flying was not an economical choice. So we took to the highway for a 9-hour trek. Truly, the kids did great, or at least as good as we could expect. Andres was the only one who got a little antsy about an hour outside of Chicago. And when he gets antsy or tires, he jabbers non-stop and says "Mami" or "Papi" a lot. When you turn around and ask, "What?" he simply replies with a big grin or shrugs his shoulders and turns his hands over, palm-side up as if to say, "I don't know." Cute the first few times. But once you hit about 15-20 "Mami's" or "Papi's" well, I'll just leave it as it's cute at first. ;)

The kids loved the city and I think Luke was very excited to show them around. He did such a great job explaining what everything was and really kept Maria and Andres interested. Besides seeing Matt's family, the highlight of the trip had to be taking the kids downtown and seeing the Macy's window displays that move. It was topped off with a long, but worth it, wait (1 1/2 hours) to see Santa. But it was unlike any Santa visit I certainly ever had! We were in a room all by ourselves with Santa and could take as long as we needed (hence, the 1 1/2 hour wait). I was worried that we would wait all that time and the two little ones would be afraid of Santa. But here's another case where I think having a big brother's lead to follow helped tremendously. They both jumped right up on his lap and told Santa what they wanted. (Ok, we helped a little--well, a lot!). Then, Santa gave the three kids a lecture about how they needed to be good, etc. We LOVED that Santa! To top it all off, they got a GREAT picture with him--a rarity.

Luke and I were afforded the opportunity to fly back to KC to go to the Kansas vs. Missouri game with my dad. (Thanks, Dad!) And I am proud to say that my Jayhawks definitely made our red-eye flight home worth it! (We had to leave for the airport at 6:15am) There is no greater defeat than the one over a Missouri Tiger. Well, the NCAA title game against Memphis was pretty darn close.

Since Thanksgiving, we continue to be entertained by our children. Maria's dance class had their first watch night, and of course, she was adorable. I was shocked at how well she did. Just by watching her, you would never know that Spanish is her native language. She understands everything so well and follows directions beautifully. Now, if she speaks, well, there's no doubt that she's learning English, but she is trying SOOO hard! Luke has started his first year of basketball and he is outstanding. Although he is the smallest on the team, he plays like one of the bigger kids. His defense is fantastic and I believe he was one of the high rebounders in his first game. As I have said before, don't be surprised if you hear about a pesky little 5'9 guard from Olathe, Kansas, making the Jayhawks basketball team. (A mom can dream, right!!??) Andres isn't actually "involved" in anything but trouble. :0 He is extremely curious about everything. He's already broken two ornaments on the Christmas tree just trying to look at them and take it all in. Unfortunately, his #1 vocabulary word right now is "no." But I think I have also thoroughly confused him as I keep asking him, "Are you supposed to say no to Mami?" Well, the poor thing wants to say "no" but I just told him not to. He looks at me with this face like, "What is wrong with this lady?" His second favorite, and newest word acquisition is "mine." Oh yeah, we are clearly in the terrific two stage (with threes just a few months away). Still no interest at all in potty training. He did tell me he dirtied his diaper the other day. I thought that was a breakthrough, but he's not done it again.

We continue to thank God each and every day with our three, beautiful children. Maybe throwing in the holiday craziness has helped but we are finally starting to feel the demand of having three kids--tired a lot, everyone is getting used to each other and more sibling antics are going on. However, I would have it no other way. This is such a blessed time right now and we are looking so forward to celebrating the birth of Christ with all three kids. It will definitely be a Christmas to remember. We hope yours will be, too!

Maria has so much fun with her cousin Kate and talks about her all the time

Luke adores his cousins

Isn't she a beautiful, little girl?

As good of a family photo as we can get. Dre rarely cooperates.

Watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade in the hotel room

Maria's first subway excursion in Chicago

Andres enthralled with one of the windows at Macy's

Another in front of one of the windows at Macy's with Cousin Kate

Nana Judy and her girls

Santa

My two elves helping to put out the Christmas decorations.

Dance watch night

The one person who makes Maria's face light up like no other--Tio Todd

First basketball game was a success: 34-20

Dre helping Papa Bill celebrate his birthday

Falling into a new life

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:33:00 +0000

As we approached election day I found myself constantly thinking, "This is their first. . . " fill in the blank. It could be Andres and Maria's first time to go to the pumpkin patch, the first time all three kids played in the leaves together, the first time they went Trick or Treating. It was something different every week. (And I have more pictures than one can ever develop to prove it!) Since I last wrote, not only have they experienced all of these "firsts" but more--the first time they met their great grandma from Iowa, the first time they experienced what they believe is COLD weather (boy are they in for a rude awakening!), the first time they experienced a presidential election. I'm overwhelmed by it and I'm sure they must be as well. But they are such troopers and have dealt with everything seamlessly with no issues. They exemplify a whole new, deeper meaning to resilience, and we love watching their personalities develop and mesh with Luke's. It's just a blast to be together.

I continue to realize how much life has changed for Luke and how well he is doing. Please forgive me, as I know I say it almost every blog, but I am so proud of him! I think it really hit me the other day when our morning surpassed hectic, and I hastily sent him off to school without a jacket on a 45 degree day! I was upset about it all day. When I was a mother of one, I NEVER would have done that! A mother of three, well, if I can remember where each kid needs to go on any given day, it is a miracle. I'm not complaining. I love the chaos. But I can only imagine how much Luke misses when things were a little calmer and more organized. A time, when he was it and all energy was focused on him. There is no doubt in my mind that he does miss that one-on-one time. At the same time, he doesn't demand it. He has been so accepting and supportive throughout all of the changes. At times, he clearly dealt with it better than I did while we were in Colombia. I have also begun to experience a deepening relationship with him. I find that he is constantly watching out for me and checking to make sure that I am ok. He is developing into a wonderful young man of which I am so proud to call my son!

While I am incredibly excited for another "first"--the holiday season as a family of five--I am also amidst sadness. I find that I am missing my grandparents more than I ever have. Selfishly, I wish they were here, physically, to be a part of what's going to be a joyous season. Outside of our adoption, I can't think of a single, pivotal event, good or bad, that Grandpa Gilbert and Grandma Helen weren't here for. They were a central piece in every celebration and sadness that I have ever gone through in life. And here I am, almost 3 years after Grandma has passed away and 5 years since Grandpa left the world, and I am grieving for them all over again. I know they are with us every single day, and I know that they live inside of all of my children and me. Recently, with Maria's elation and approval, we changed Maria's middle name to Helen, as a way to honor the great grandmother that she never had the honor to meet. I hope that by the time I leave this world, I can give Maria a glimpse of what a phenomenal woman it is that's her namesake. She has a big name to live up to, but one that I am confident that she will fulfill because Maria is a brave warrior who has gone through so much in life, has overcome so many obstacles and continues to greet each day with a smile and goodness, just as Grandma Helen did. I pray for strength every day when I feel the sadness, and God listens to my prayers. That's how I know and have always known that I will make it through the days ahead and enjoy them, just as I have enjoyed all that we've experienced so far. I am so blessed that God chose this family for me! After you see the smiles, personalities and sweetness of each of the photos below, you'll see why! Also, think of us in five days when we will be celebrating 6 MONTHS TOGETHER!!!

First time in the leaves together

First time to the pumpkin patch

First time to carve a pumpkin . . .

make seeds. . .

but not the first time to be a goof ball while everyone else is doing all of the work!

First time to meet Great Grandma Hazel

First Halloween together with

Nana Sharon, Papa Ronnie, Mimi, Papa Bill and Tio Todd

Our Colombian, Santa Fe soccer player

Our sweet bat

And the most beautiful gypsy you'll ever see

And I couldn't resist this one--THIS is the happiness and

love that adoption can bring to an only child

Time passes with little time to breathe

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:01:00 +0000

What a great past few months it has been. Luke is loving third grade, Maria and Andres can't get enough of pre-school, and I have finally gone back to work after being blessed with a long, but needed, leave. There have been so many changes in each of the kids. Luke seems to be so much older and is doing a great job at being the big brother. He is adored by Andres who asks where Luke is everyday. When Luke finally arrives home, you can tell Andres' day is at its best! Luke is so good with both of them. The way he plays, colors, draws, teaches English, wrestles, plays chase, etc. . . well it's just amazing. And he insists on reading their stories to them almost every night. It warms my heart to see how interactive he is. And if there were ever any doubts about whether or not adopting two more kids was the right thing to do (which there never has been), well, all I have to do is look at the three of them together to see that it was a true gift from God to bring us all together. It's also been a thrill to watch him play soccer and football this fall. With my declining KC Chiefs, Luke's games are now a highlight of every weekend.

Maria definitely loves to learn. I don't know that I have ever seen a child try to speak the English language as diligently as she does. She can now count to 10, draw circles (WOOHOO--HUGE accomplishments, believe me) and acknowledges that she is 4 and not "ocho" (8) like she insisted for months. Yes, my friends, it's the little things, right? She can't get enough of pre-school and wants to go every day. And she is also in dance. For whatever reason, the first few times she went, she cried when it was time to go into the studio. I was baffled by this as she had not cried when put into ANY new situation and she squealed with excitement the few weeks preceding her first class. I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine, but now, everything is fine, she has learned to do a turn and a scale (with much wobbliness). I'm sure there are other things but that's what we see after every dance class when we come home and get a "showing" of her dance skills. Outside of pre-school, I think her most favorite thing right now is soccer. She plays with other 4 year old girls. There is no skill and little understanding of the game but all of the girls do a great job of swarming around the ball in one big clump. So far, she has scored a goal in every game and two in the last one. As the proud parent, I must say that in those games, her goals are the only ones scored. As the humble parent, I must acknowledge that none of them have been a result of knowing to take the ball and dribble it down the field. Instead, she has just been in the right place and the right time. But who cares? It makes her so happy.

Both of the kids are getting speech help. Maria more for pronunciation, Andres due to lack of speaking. However, Andres has made incredible progress. He is now speaking two-word sentences that only I can understand but nevertheless they are two-word sentences. Pretty amazing accomplishments for the kid who only had about 3 words in his repertoire when we got him. He, too, adores pre-school. All of the teachers there constantly ask me if he is always so happy. Yep, that's our Andres. He also loves soccer and is amazing dribbling the ball. I watch him and can't believe is only two and can dribble with such speed and control. Maybe by the time he get to be 4, he will be the lone ranger who actually understands the game. : )

We've had some great family outings. We went to our local town fair where they tried a funnel cake for the first time and devoured it within a few minutes. They really got a kick out of a Japanese Steakhouse once they got past the loudness and fire. As yet another attempt to completely brainwash them (and keep them close to home when college time comes), I took them to a KU Jayhawk pep rally. THEY WERE IN HEAVEN! Every kind of Jayhawk imaginable--stickers, statues, blow ups, and of course Big and Baby Jay mascots. They both got removable Jayhawk tattoos on their arms that neither wanted to wash off. It has been one of the best times I have had with them so far. Just a GREAT night! Also, we went to the KC Art Fair and just had a wonderful evening outdoors in the beautiful September weather. Maria and Andres got to meet another cousin who came in from Baltimore. It was fun to watch Maria and Kate interact since they are both four. The most amazing part was to see how they played with no problems even though the language barrier existed. It proves how resilient children are. We've also had fun introducing them to other new foods. Some of the favorites--powdered doughnuts, watermelon, chilled ice sticks, Chinese food. Some not-so-favorites--really just one, chili if it's "pica" (spicy/hot).

I can't believe in another week and a half that we will be celebrating five months of being together. I'm getting so anxious for Christmas. When I saw how much excitement putting a few Halloween items out caused, it made me daydream about the thrill of Christmas. I can't wait to see them open presents, meet Santa, etc. It will definitely be a Christmas to remember.

Finally, the first day of school!

Busting at the seems with excitement to go to "cool"

Not so excited that little brother will be at school for a few hours

Maria was SO proud of her first piece of artwork she brought home from school. You should've seen how much her face lit up when I put it on the refrigerator for all to see.

The muddiest football game of the year!

Andres' #1 pasttime

First soccer game

Big Day--Soccer!

All smiles at this point before heading into the dance studio

What is this crazy thing?

Pumpkin perfection

This is a kid who knows how to get INTO his powdered doughnuts

I just love this picture--he looks so much older now compared to when we got him!

Definite watermelon fans

This is piece #2. Pretty sure he loved it--check out the shirt . . .

. . . oh, and the mouth!

Perfect cousins

Fun at the park

Always the camera-hog ham

They adore each other--can you tell?

And yes, he's still a clown

Perfect indication of what we may have to contend with in the future. The perfect flirt and lady killer! But who wouldn't be attracted to a beautiful Jayhawk girl!!??

For Andres, the intrigue of my most favorite mythical bird has just begun.

Does she look beautiful in red and blue or what!!??

Will it ever get easier?

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:31:00 +0000

You would think after sending Luke to school for four years now that I would be used to all that comes with the first day of school. But it seems in some ways it just gets harder. As always, last night, the evening before the first day of school, was a tough one. I don't know why I do this, but I get so heavy-hearted. I find myself poring back over the summer's events (and my wasn't this one eventful!) and how much Luke has grown. I reflect back on the things we did and the things that were left unaccomplished. And I seem to find myself wanting to freeze time, especially this year. He has matured so much over the past four months and he continues to amaze me every day. I'm so proud of the big brother that he has become--the way he loves his brother and sister. When I looked at his face last night as he was laying in bed, I couldn't help but cry. I am so grateful for his life, health, presence in my life. I hope to never find out what life is like without him. Although he is my oldest, now, I still see him as my baby and can remember the day he was born and placed in my arms. I think kids just show you how quickly life passes. I am enjoying motherhood more now than I ever have and I just hate that time keeps passing by so quickly. I know Matt thinks I am crazy. And he's right when he says, "Man, if you're crying about him going to 3rd grade, I can't wait to see you at this high school graduation!" And you see, that's why I cry. Because I know it will be here before I want it to be! This morning, however, I felt much better, as I always have in the past. To see his bright, shining face, so full of energy and excitement. How can you not be happy for him? The best part, of course, was seeing how excited Maria and Andres were to get their picture taken with him in his classroom. It was like Luke had rock-star quality. Yet another great day for a mom of three. God has truly blessed me!

IS HE REALLY GOING INTO 3RD GRADE? WOW!

MARIA AND ANDRES WERE SO PROUD OF HIM

THE FAMILY OF 5 CELEBRATING THE BIG DAY

ANOTHER YEAR AND OFF HE GOES

HAPPY TO BE AT SCHOOL

ONCE AGAIN, THE PROUD BROTHER AND SISTER
WHO DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE BIG BROTHER

The Power Above and Guardian Angels

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:45:00 +0000

Every day brings experiences where I realize how good life has been to me. However, there are certain days where I feel it even deeper and have a tremendous feeling of thanksgiving. Yesterday, we were having a great day--Luke, Maria, Andres and me. I consider a "good" day to be one in which the kids get along for the most part, and I rarely have to mediate. A "great" day is one in which there have been NO issues. Yes, they rarely happen--a "great" day that is. And when they do, I feel like I can conquer and accomplish anything! What's so ironic about this is that I started my day watching a lady on TV named Joyce Meyer. This is a woman who has been quite inspirational to my brother and I thought I would see what she was all about. Well, her premise of yesterday's show was "If you have not, you've asked not." Basically, she talked about how we shouldn't be afraid to pray for things even when we have been given so much. BUT when we pray and ask for things, we have to be able to handle the answer "no." Up until listening to Joyce Meyer speak, I have struggled with this. I have two wonderful parents, two fantastic step-parents, a brother who is living a happy life, a step-sister with a beautiful family, an awesome dog who is about to celebrate 15 years of life and of course an unbeatable husband (and in-laws!) and three fabulous kids. That's not to mention my happy upbringing and a number of experiences in life that I have been so blessed to be a part of, as well as an incredible group of friends, a beautiful house and most importantly, our health. It seems to me I'd be getting a little greedy to ask for more--things like getting Maria and Andres into a pre-school of our choice (they are both on waiting lists), help adjusting financially to our new additions, dealing with my feelings of wanting to be with the kids and already dreading going back to work in September, and yes, the need for a "great" day. Well, I decided to go ahead and try things out yesterday, and I said a prayer from the heart asking for help with those things mentioned above. Shortly thereafter, the kids were all out of bed and acting like best friends. They were playing beautifully, Andres was talking up a storm, Maria was inserting every English word she knew into her sentences, and Luke. . .what an awesome big brother!! He sat down with the two of them and played everything they wanted to play while teaching them more English words and helping both kids work on their pronunciations. Even after running errands in the HEAT (side note--Maria and Andres are having a hard time adjusting to the 90+ degree heat and have to say "hot" every time we walk outside) the kids were doing "great." As I watched Luke take Maria and Andres for their naps, all three of the kids were laughing and smiling. I realized at that point, that God had already listened. I immediately got my camera out to capture God at work. And here's what I saw:

I couldn't help but be euphoric most of the day. And I thought about the power of that prayer, and most importantly, the power of God to answer. I am mystified by how quickly things can happen (and I forgot to add that I also received a call from the pre-school of our choice to let us know they have an opening for Maria!!), but I am not afraid to admit that I think some guardian angels above are working for us, too. Yesterday, out of nowhere, Luke asked me about his Great Grandpa Gilbert and said, "Did I know him?" Part of my heart hurt when Luke asked this question. My Grandpa Gilbert was one of the most incredible human beings I have and will ever meet. And if I could ever pick two people that I could bring back to life just so that my kids could experience their tremendous goodness and love of God and life, it would be my Grandma Helen and Grandpa Gilbert. I miss them EVERY SINGLE DAY! To have Luke ask that question meant that he remembered nothing of Grandpa; therefor, it broke my heart. I explained that, yes, Luke knew him because Grandpa Gilbert didn't pass away until Luke was 2 1/2 years old. I also added that Grandpa Gilbert played with Luke all of the time, every chance he could get. Luke stared off into the sky for a while and replied, "I wish he could see me now." It brought tears to my eyes. All of a sudden, everything from the day just pulled together, and I simply said, "Oh he does. He sees you and watches over us every day." With that, a huge smile spread across Luke's face. Never underestimate the power of God and your guardian angels!

Fireworks, visits, birthdays, a zoo, friends and a lot of nostalgia

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:50:00 +0000

So much has happened over the past few weeks! We have been blessed by the large number of friends and family who continue to come and see us. It's been a wonderful, busy, overwhelming summer!

I woke up last Saturday, July 19, with immediate nostalgia on so many different levels. It was our 11th anniversary so we pulled out the wedding video so the kids could see what an American wedding was like. It was fun to watch and my how we looked young! But we also realized that we had another reason to be nostalgic. July 19th was the 2-month anniversary of getting Maria and Andres. Wow! Are you kidding me!!?? It seems like they have been a part of our family for so much longer, and being in Bogota seems light years ago. I was recently asked what I miss about Colombia. It's kind of funny because I hadn't thought about the fact that I would miss Colombia. So I have thought a lot about that question. I definitely miss the beauty of the country--the mountains, greenery, countryside, clouds and rain--ok maybe not that. But most of all I miss the incredible flowers! But I think I miss Colombia in a way that it's more for Maria and Andres. How tough it must be to come to a brand new country, knowing no one. What incredible trust and courage these little ones have! I think of how much we longed to hear English after only being in Colombia for 3 1/2 weeks. I can't imagine how their poor little brains must yearn for Spanish to be spoken. We have had a few people around that have spoken Spanish with them, and I have gone to the library to get some Spanish/English instructional videos from Sesame Street that they love. We've also continued to read some books to them in Spanish and speak to them in it each day. But we are so limited in our vocabulary that it's mostly English. I am so proud of how much they have accomplished!

Andres' vocabulary is increasing every day. He has gone from only saying Mama and Papa (for everything) to adding words like please, meow, cat, more, car and dog (which he pronounces god). But my a few of my favorites: 1) when Maria or Luke do something to him that he doesn't like and he puts his open hand out and extends his arm while saying, "Stop!" 2) He hits a lot rather than using words so when he does this, he has to say sorry. Until two days ago, it was pronounced, "Sorr" but he has now successfully added the "y." (We celebrate the small things!) 3) Finally, when we were leaving the gym last week, a man was holding open the door for us. As I walked out, I said "thank you" followed by Maria saying it and then Andres said it as plain as day. Maria and I both stopped, turned around and got overly excited, congratulating him for his words. The man looked at us like we were crazy. But I didn't care. If you could've seen the pride on Andres' face. . . Maria is doing incredibly as well. She likes a lot of attention when using the English language so much of the day is, "Mami, look at/listen to me" followed by a word, phrase or sentence in English. She has started showing her first signs of frustration with me when I don't understand her but we are trying to work through it. Since she doesn't speak her native language with correct pronunciations, I can't always pull out the handy Spanish-English dictionary to help me solve the mystery. My favorite word to hear her say is "oops" which is pronounced "opus" by her. Too cute!

As some of you may know, we were hoping that she would be able to be serviced through my school district. They had three different pre-school programs she could qualify and a lot of Spanish-speaking support since it is houses a large number of Hispanic children. Well, I just found out that they won't serve out-of-district children until they are in kindergarten. Bummer! So I have been looking at some other options, local pre-schools, having someone come in once a week to speak with the kids so that they can also retain their Spanish, speaking it appropriately. I have also found a dance class for her to take where the teacher speaks Spanish and English. I have to wait until Aug. 1 to find out is the school district that we live in has anything to offer if she doesn't qualify for their services through speech or language issues. I don't think they do. So, I have a lot to figure out between now and September when I head back to work!

You can definitely tell that the kids are getting very comfortable with each other. So there's a lot of whining, pouting, tattling, yelling. . . timeouts! ; ) But it's all very manageable and exactly what I expected. It's wonderful to see the bonds being formed. Luke and Maria are still in a love-hate mode but always end the day with kisses and hugs. Neither can go to bed until they have been given. No changes with Andres as he tends to get along with everybody. He's so laid back, goes with the flow--just a joy to have around! That's not to say that he's not doing the whining thing, too. He just isn't as verbally dramatic as the other two. Never thought I'd say that a two-year old was easy, but he has proven that it can happen.

We have taken both kids for all of their check-ups, blood draws, immunizations, etc. We just have the dentist left. Maria came out clear. Andres was found to be anemic, so we've got him on iron right now. He has to go back to get more blood drawn next week. Poor guy! But he was a champ last time. They took 6, full vials of blood from him last time. He barely peeped when the needle went in, watched the blood draw out of his arm, and they removed the needle. Ironically, it wasn't until they put on his band-aid that he cried. Hopefully, we'll have the same luck next time.

The hardest part of every day continues to be dinner. I don't know why I am struggling with this. It irritates me, really. But I am finding it's harder to estimate portions, I'm still learning how much of everything I need to buy to get through a week or two (so we are making multiple grocery stops each week), and it just seems to take me forever to get things done. On top of that, I am having to do at least a load of laundry each day, the dishwasher is full and it has to be run every night, I have to sweep off the hardwoods each day or our dog who can't process people food will get sick, and I am quickly learning why there are so many stay-at-home moms! I dread the thought of going back to work and figuring out how everything is going to get done. I guess it might not and I'll have to live with that. It's tough for an anal retentive person to accept that change! The good news is that Maria is a fantastic helper around the house which has prompted Luke to step things up a notch as well. She helps me do everything. I had no idea that a four-year old was capable of all that she does. Anyway, last week when I gave Luke his allowance, I also gave her $1. You would have though I gave her the moon. She looks at it every day. Can't wait for the day when she starts realizing that $1 practically buys nothing these days! : )

I'll end with more pictures of happenings over the last few weeks. (I realize I get a little crazy with the number of pics I include. But I do feel, at times, like a mother with a newborn, and it's tough to narrow them down!) The fourth of July was a blast with family and friends. They had fun watching the fuegos artificiales and sparklers. Enjoy! I know we have so far!!

July 4th

Luke and Maria with two of their favorite friends!

Sparkler fascination with Mimi

Finally, another family photo, but Andres isn't cooperating (only when he has the camera to himself!)

Maria with our friends' children also from Colombia

The drama and faces of Andres--yes, he's happy most of the time!

Luke adding his drama in the background

Oh yeah, he's pouring on the charm for his special Colombian, Crissy! (The marriage has already been arranged. )

Here Andres is again with Crissy, making sure she'll always take care of him. Just like a male, huh? : )

What you can't see is that he has take his spoon and flicked ice cream all over his face! (See below.)

Petting zoo with friends

Ok, this pic could've gone in the above category, too. Andres wasn't real hip on the smell at the zoo. Now he knows how we feel each morning we enter his room!

Maria with our friends' daughters.

My three, sweet children. Note the "Andres face" once again!

Love my girl!

Family time and meeting cousins Nate and Trent for the first time

The grandkids with Nana and Papa

Luke and Maria at a time when they think having a sibling isn't so bad

Proud cousins, Luke and Nate

Trent and Maria absolutely loved each other!

Trent and Andres--Trent realized this kind of play wasn't fun for long while Andres thought it was fantastic.

Nate and Luke sharing Nintendo DS secrets

Once again, you can just see the love in their eyes.

All the cousins with Andres having to be different

Dia de Las Chicas (Girl's Day)

Thanks to Papa Ronnie for taking the boys so this day could happen

Maria loves music and decided to bust a move to a song being played while shopping

Mami and Maria having a great day!

A proud Nana Sharon FINALLY getting a picture with a granddaughter

Shopping wears out the best of us

A Few Other Priceless Photos

As this hat was acquired on our Girls' Day Out shopping trip, this is "Hip Hop Maria." This is when her true Latina comes out!

Such a cute moment that was tough to capture. This was Andres trying to figure out what the rain was when it pelted the car windows. It fascinated him for quite a while as he tried to touch it from the inside.

Luke --proudly displaying his Jayhawk crocs

Our dog Max--I had to include this one. Not only is this poor dog 15 years old, but he has endured so many changes. He's been awesome with the kids.

This is Maria after I gave her the $1 allowance. The perks of being an American in the Jensen family.

I'm ending with one of my favorite pictures. Luke has done a great job with this HUGE life-changing event. However, it is very difficult for him, at times, when he can't have our full attention. This just shows that he and his dad will take their time together any way they can get it.

Two Weeks Home and Doing GREAT!

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:38:00 +0000

We keep being asked how everything is going. In a word--FANTASTIC! The kids have adjusted amazingly well. They have transitioned as flawlessly as we could expect, and we are so proud of the way all three of the kids have adapted to being a family of five. Time has absolutely flown by and I couldn't believe it when I noticed today that we have been home for two weeks. We continue to be blessed by visits from family and friends which has been wonderful. It's been a blast introducing Maria and Andres to all of these special people. They usually win over hearts very quickly as they love to greet people with hugs, kisses and/or huge smiles.

Matt eased back into work which was nice. The kids were able to handle his full-day absences once he got back into the swing of things. I wasn't sure how things were going to go with me parenting solo, but the kids have been great. Luke is a HUGE help, and I have to say that being a mom of three has been a million times easier than I ever expected. I don't know if it's because I prepared myself for utter chaos or what. But when I think back to how difficult it was to parent an infant, I feel so blessed to be in the here and now with a 2, 4, and 8 year old. They are all pretty easy going and I have thoroughly enjoyed every day I have spent with them!

There have been a number of things that make us laugh. For example, for the first few days at home, I kept finding Maria and Andres over by our air vents. They thought it was the neatest thing that cold air came out of them. I guess living in a stable climate of 60 degrees, they've probably never experienced air conditioning to that degree. They also find it fascinating when the garage doors open magically. I'm sure they have electronic garage doors in Colombia, but they clearly haven't seen any. Maria still squeals each day when we pick out a new outfit to wear. Andres--well he could care less. He just wants to get to his cars or the dog toys. Which leads me to our 15 year old dog, Max. He has done very well with the kids. Pretty much ignores them. Poor dog, I wonder how many years I have shaved off of his life by bringing three kids into his life. I have a feeling he'd be vying for the "oldest dog in the world" title had those factors not entered.

Their language continues to get better. They seem to understand quite a bit of what we say, or at least they are indulging us Andres tries to mimic sounds. He still points a lot rather than use word and says a lot of Mama and Papa for pretty much everything, but we have also added "choo choo" "dog" (which sounds nothing like dog but has the same vowel sound and "Dre Dre" which is what we call him sometimes. Unfortunately, with his speaking deficiency, he can't express himself when he gets upset so he likes to hit his brother and sister. If any of you have any ideas of ways to work through this, I would love it. I really am trying to get him to make sounds, even, but he's much more content and comfortable with hitting to express himself. Maria does a good job of repeating words and uses words like "chips," "water," "bubbles," "thank you," "please," and "I love you" whenever she has a chance. But I am most proud to say that I have two Jayhawks to add to the fan base. Maria loves to listen to the Jayhawk fight song and the Rock Chalk chant. Whenever they see a Jayhawk, Andres gives it a strong point of the finger while Maria screams"Jayhawk." It's music to my ears and they both look fantastic in crimson and blue!

People keep asking us what the most difficult part has been since we've been home. Well, as I could only think of two things, there hasn't been much that's led to difficulties. The first one is bedtime. The kids are not real hip on going to bed. I try to remind myself that I, too, was like that as a kid. Then I got married, had kids and, well, the rest is history. Anyway, they love to take baths and play in the water. They are pro tooth brushers (or at least Andres is a pro toothpaste eater) but they hate it when it's time to get into bed. We try to soften the blow by reading them stories. Matt reads to Maria, Luke, mainly, reads to Andres while I lay beside them. But when it's time to turn the lights out, mayhem. It took a few days to get Andres to stay in his bed. But now, he may squawk for 15 seconds and he's done. A real faker, he is! Maria, on the other hand, is a little different. She hates it and screams and cries. At one point, it got pretty bad (especially when I was out of the house--go figure on that one. She couldn't stand the sight of me the first few days we had her and now she can't stand to go to bed without seeing me--that's PROGRESS!) So, I decided to try some consequences. These kids love their fruits. So I promised her lots of fruits if she went to bed without crying. The first night, she cried/screamed. So, the next day, no fruit. The next night, NO CRYING! I was so excited. She's gone back and forth but we have gone two night in a row now with no crying. So, maybe we are making headway. The second part that's been tough is dinner time. You know, when it was the three of us, if Matt was going to be late, or if we were having a busy night (which is frequently) I shoved a Kid Cuisine in the oven for Luke and made myself a sandwich. Easy enough. Well, those days are gone. I have found it quite difficult to plan, prepare and serve a meal for five in a timely manner without it taking up a good portion of our evening and our real "family" time to go outside and play. I may have to look at one of those places that prepares meals ahead for you and then they can be frozen. I don't know. Something is going to have to change. Or maybe I'm just going to have to just give it time so I can adapt and get better at the whole thing. Thank goodness my in-laws stocked our refrigerator and pantry before we got home. Outside of running to Sam's Club for milk ($2.99/gallon which is why I go there since we go through 4+ gallons a week!) and a few other things, I have not had time to go to the store and do some full out shopping. I hoped to tackle that yesterday but it looks like it may be the weekend or later before I get the chance again. We have a pretty full weekend ahead.

Well, if you are wondering what else we have been up to here are some pics to show you:

Enjoying new toys

Playing dress up

Riding a bike

Watching balloons go up into the sky

Celebrating Luke's 8th birthday!

Discovering concrete can be beautiful

Learning what a sprinkler is

Slipping and sliding

Cheering on Big Brother Luke

Loving each other and our family every day

And eating like crazy! (Note for these final two pics: The kids acted like they had never had tacos. Andres decided to stab his with a fork, and Maria ate hers from the top of the shell.)

Last Days

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:18:00 +0000

As you can imagine, it is has been pretty hectic since we returned from Colombia. I will try to give a quick blog entry for our last two days in Bogota.

Last Tuesday, our last full day, we woke to some more typical Bogota weather. However, as the day progressed, the rains became more frequent and stronger – even by Bogota standards.

After breakfast, we spoke with Carmen about the possibility of going to Monseratte. As she did each time we asked about Monseratte, she took us outside, pointed in the cloudy direction of the mountain and explained that this would not be a good day to go. So, we opted for plan B, a trip to the Botero Museum, instead. Our cab driver drove us around the narrow, hilly streets of downtown Bogota for a while. Some were closed and we couldn’t tell if he was lost or just having difficulty being routed in different directions. Finally, he stopped and talked to one of the security people watching a closed street and we learned that the Botero Museum is closed on Tuesdays. At that point, although it was cloudy and sprinkling a little in places, we told him to take us to Monseratte.

We arrived at a fairly nondescript looking building and purchased tickets for the “train” to the top. This train basically consists of one car with staggered compartments for people to stand on the 2-3 minute ride to the top of the mountain.

It was kind of misty and overcast at the top of the mountain, but we could still see most of the city below. However, the real beauty of Monseratte isn’t the only in the surrounding views, but also in the church and structures at the top of the mountain. Here is the ride up.

The house where we "landed."

A few views from the mountain.

Of course there were more stations of the cross as we walked up the path to the church. However, I found these a little more interesting than the “salt crosses” of the Cathedral of Salt (the extremely subtle symbolism was kind of lost on me at that place).

A few more views from the mountain top.

The church at the top of the mountain.

I am assuming this was a Catholic church, but I have never been in a Catholic church where Christ was not on the cross and was on the ground like here. I will have to ask around about this (like my family Catholicism expert Aunt Carole) and would welcome answers from anyone.

Luke asking for, and needing, a prayer.

I liked this Jesus statue but it kind of reminded me of "Buddy Jesus from the movie "Dogma."

Looking back out the doors of the church, you can see another mountain peak where they have a big Jesus statue - like the one in Rio De Janeiro except smaller. It was kind of cool.

Los ninos outside of the church.

Although we had to take a "train" up the mountain, we had to take the cable car back down. Here are some views.

After the tour of Monseratte, we arrived back too late for lunch at the compound. So we went to a little restaurant near the compound that had always looked interesting, “Sopas y Postres.” Traci and Luke tried the empanadas (our first in Colombia), but we decided we like the ones from the Colombian restaurant in KC a little better. That really isn’t too fair of a comparison since this place isn’t really known for empanadas.

After naps, we ran out to the kids hair styling salon to get Maria’s hair done again before we returned home. Of course, once we arrived another serious downpour started. On the way home, we put Maria in the stroller usually used by Andres because it could be covered by a big plastic sheet (I wasn’t about to blow $12 on a hairdo only to have it get rained on). Traci tried to keep Andres and herself covered under an umbrella, but the rest of us pretty much arrived back at the compound drenched.

As I recall, dinner was rice and meat balls. Afterwards, I ran out to one of the local coffee shops to get some souvenir Colombian coffee. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to get all of your shopping done. When I arrived back, Oscar, our attorney, and “the dress lady” stopped by the compound. They both needed money for the services they provided during out stay. We were very happy that the dress lady could complete our order before we left. She said she employed 4 additional ladies to help her get things done. I know that the boys got matching sweaters and I think Maria got 2 dresses (I wasn’t too interested at this point. I just knew we were going home the next day).

Night time brought few surprises. I still hadn’t started packing and Traci was pretty much done getting herself and the kids’ stuff put away. We didn’t have any internet access that night, so I had only clothes packing to do that night. I don’t know if it was all of the activity going on in the room or what, but Maria couldn’t sleep. We tried hanging my “ruana” over the bunk beds to sort of shield her from the light. A few minutes later, though, she began to sob and cry. Maybe she was just overtired or maybe it was kind of hitting her that she was leaving – we don’t know. Traci and I sat with her for a while and talked about all of the fun things that the next day had in store (she loves to fly on airplanes and we talked about that for a while). We showed her some videos of the house and her room which got her to calm down to the point where she could finally go to sleep.

The next morning, Traci got up a little before 5 and I got up a little after that. Andres, our escort, was supposed to arrive at 6:00 a.m. to take us to the airport. We got all of the bags arranged in plenty of time for me to have a cup of coffee before we had to leave. Andres went with us into the airport. We were ushered into a line and then he asked for all of our passports and took off somewhere. We didn’t see where he went and pretty soon we would be reaching the end of the line where we needed our passports. We were starting to get a little nervous and let a few people go past us before Andres finally showed back up He wasn’t gone long but we were on guard for that minor catastrophe that would keep us from getting home. I think he must have gone to pay the “exit tax” or whatever it is called. I remember reading that we were supposed to pay one, but I don’t recall doing that ourselves. We got our tickets and into the boarding area without too much of a problem and in plenty of time for our flight. In fact, we even got to have a little breakfast before settling into to the waiting area.
Here are Maria and Andres waiving goodbye to Colombia.

Just a bunch of photos from the plane.

Andres figured out how to mess with the headphones jacks between the seats. The poor lady sitting next to him did not have a good 4+ hour flight to Atlanta. Eventually, Andres fell asleep, but he woke up and pretty much cried and whined the last hour of the flight. Consequently, he sat with me on the second leg from Atlanta to KC.

The trip to Atlanta and, later, through customs were pretty uneventful. In fact, customs went a lot faster than we expected. We did get stuck on the runway in Atlanta and were about an hour late getting off the ground. However, we were able to give plenty of heads up to our families who would be waiting for us at the airport.

We arrived home at 7:15 on Wednesday night. Luke, Andres and I had to sit in the second to the last row of the airplane – so anyone who thinks we were trying to be last off the plane for dramatic effect is wrong. It was great to see our families and friends again. Luke’s buddy, Behr, came to the airport and surprised him. I know he was missing his friend, and I think Behr was a little bored without Luke around too.

That night the kids didn’t get into their beds until around midnight. We had food, people stopping by the house a lot of great stories from both continents. It was kind of like a small party.
There were some gifts.

Apparently, people had been reading our blog and had heard about Andres' diapers.

Maria got a new pair of earrings. . .

and they got lost in the shaggy carpet about as quickly as the box was opened. We never did find it, but Nana Sharon fixed it the next day and got new ones.

And, of course, we had the Maria dance. Papa Denny sang while Papa Bill and Papa Ron took turns dancing with Maria. She loved it.

That is pretty much it from our last couple days in Bogota. I will try to update again in another blog entry about how the kids have been doing in our first week back – and, not to spoil it, but they have been doing great.

Home Safe and Sound

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:57:00 +0000

Sorry we didn't get a post in on our last night. We had pretty heavy rains in Bogota yesterday (which seems forever ago right now) and the internet went out in El Refrugio. I don't know if the two are related, but it really hasn't rained all day before like it did yesterday. Long stories made short, on Tuesday we finally got to the top on Montseratte (pictures coming). Despite the poor weather, it was pretty amazing (better than the salt church or anything else we have seen). After much travel and very few hassles, we arrived in Kansas City tonight around 7:15 p.m. and were greeted by much fanfare from the family and friends. Everyone is doing fine and we are very happy to be home.

I will try to get the updates in over the weekend. Just check on Monday to be sure. Thanks to everyone for their comments, emails and support. It was truly a life altering journey and I am glad we could share everything with our family and friends. And if anyone at El Refugio is reading this, we will miss you guys (Hope everyone gets home safe and soon).

Andres Dance II

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:26:00 +0000

Here is some more "Andres Dance" from Crepes & Waffles. It was going pretty well until Luke tried to get the camera from Traci to film her. She had to rush around to get ready this monring and was a little camera shy today (she looked fine but didn't get in her full 45 minutes to get ready),

The Andres Dance

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:06:00 +0000

It was a little dark out here, but I hope you can see.

U.S. Embassy, the Park and a Night Out

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:10:00 +0000

I slept in until about 8:00 this morning – mostly just because that is how long the kids slept. Maria and Luke had some crazy dreams last night. Maria was mumbling stuff in her sleep and tossed & turned quite a bit. Luke, on the other hand sat straight up and told me how sorry he was that he lost something off his wrist. I told him I would but a new one tomorrow (whatever it was) and that he should just lie back down. He was asleep this whole time but woke up a minute or two later kind of shaking. Consequently, neither Traci nor I got much sleep either.

Traci was up at 7:15 to begin working on the papers we needed to fill out for the U.S. Embassy and the ninos’ visas. As we probably should have guessed, Lucia called at about 8:05 to tell us that our ride would be here at 9:00 to take us to the embassy. We went into a flurry of activity getting everyone washed and dressed and fed. Traci still had several forms to complete and worked mostly on those. She said she had a feeling Lucia was going to call early in the morning and do that to us. That is why she couldn’t sleep and started working on the forms.

During breakfast, the three kids all ate French toast. They keep the syrup in these little jars on the shelf in the eating area and I usually just help myself as needed. My French friend, Cathy, asked me this morning what that brown stuff was in the bottles. It took me a minute to grasp what she was asking because syrup seems like such a household item to us in the U.S. I explained what it was and I kind of think she got it. I tried to ask what they put on their pancakes in France, but I am not sure she totally understood. She mentioned something about how all they had was jelly. So, if heading to France for an extended time and if you plan on eating pancakes, waffles or French toast, you might want to cart along some syrup.

David arrived right at about 9:00 to pick us up. When we got downstairs, we met our new neighbors from across the hall. They are a young American couple from Billings, MT. They arrived late last night and we heard them dragging their things up the stairs. However, we were kind of in bed-mode and didn’t pop out to introduce ourselves. They were going to get their three new kids that morning in Bogota and we shared a ride out of the compound.

We arrived at the embassy a little before 10:00 and Andres was there waiting for us. He shuttled us up through the lines to get in and we had our paperwork turned in by about 10:30. Then we waited for a considerable amount of time. Anyone with little kids knows that this can be hard anywhere. However, Luke and the ninos (sounds like the name of a good rock band) were, for the most part, pretty well behaved. We also met another couple from Washington D.C. at the embassy getting their visas prepared too. They were adopting three kids, approximate ages 2-6, and seemed to really have their hands full. Our kiddos (including Luke) looked pretty subdued compared to them. Anyway, they seemed like good people. Traci talked to them much more than I did. I was too busy standing with Andres (the “grande,” not our Andres the “pequeno”) listening for someone to announce the name “Jensen” (or “Hensen” in Spanish) over the intercom.

There was one Andres (the "pequeno") episode that deserves mentioning. While he was well-behaved for the most part, he liked playing this game where he would run between Traci and I as fast as he could. He only fell 3-4 times but there was no crying. Then he started doing this thing where he would walk between Traci’s legs and, later, mine. After a couple times of this, he ran into a total stanger and stood behind him for a minute. Then he lowered his head and pushed between the poor guy’s legs. I don’t think this guy had a clue what was going on, but he was a good sport about it. Everyone who saw shared a laugh.

A few things about the embassy . . . first, you could probably drive right by and never notice it was there. There are no big flags or anything really marking the place (there is lots of security outside, but there is security everywhere in Bogota). Secondly, if you ever wanted to know what a great country we live in, check out the line of people in a foreign land waiting for a visa to come visit the states. There must have been a couple hundred people in the waiting area. I know they do more than just process visas at the embassy, but many of them appeared to be there for that reason. Finally, while it is technically “U.S. soil” there are surprisingly few U.S. natives working at the embassy. It’s mostly people from Bogota and just about anyone you had to talk to spoke very good English.

The wait to get paper work completed took a while but not forever. When I finally got to the second window it was explained that their new computer program wasn’t working this morning and that was causing some delays. The only thing that threw us was that the lady behind the window (window #2) asked to see the verification of our fingerprints. Luckily, my beautiful and highly organized wife kept a copy of everything and brought it all to the embassy with us. They can’t stop this family from going home! In all, we spent about 2.5 hours at the embassy getting everything complete. It was much faster than I had planned on or heard about from other people. Once again, we consider ourselves lucky. We have to go back to the embassy at 3:30 tomorrow to pick up the visas. That will be the last step in our Colombian adoption process and we can go home. It almost doesn’t seem real that we are finally this close. And I am sorry we do not have any pictures of the embassy. They do not allow cameras inside so we didn’t even bother to bring it.

We got back to the compound just in time for lunch. Today’s soup: potato and maize. The “maize” was like a half-popped popcorn. Luke has been boycotting any soups for the last week but we all though it was pretty good. The main course was salchichas with onions and peppers along with mashed potatoes. I liked it, but not everyone thought it was that great. In fact, Luke boycotted the entire lunch. These last few days have been pretty hard on Luke. He is as anxious as anyone to get home and misses his friends. So, when I left during the ninos’ nap to make my daily stop at the ATM, I took him along and we stopped at McDonald’s for an All-American lunch (Yep, I am pretty sure I am not going there again once we get home).

By the time we returned from the embassy the new American couple was back with their new ninos. For first time parents, I think they got a very good fit. Their kids all seem very calm and subdued. Traci and I gave them the low-down on the compound and all of the surrounding places of interest – just like the compound veterans did for us when we arrived (thanks again Mark and Debi).

We had thought about trying to fit in the Botero museum after the kids got up for a nap, but decided that the park might be a better idea. There are a lot of things we would still like to do, but we don’t want to make these last few days miserable by trying to cram it all in. The way we figure it, we traded all of that for a week i Cartagena and it was worth it. When we arrived at the park, we found the two French families from the compound there with their kids – plus the French family that used to live her but is now at a local hotel. It was kind of like an El Refugio day at the park.

Luke has been dying to play a little wiffle ball (be brought a bat and couple balls) and the weather was perfect for it. I pitched, Luke hit and the ninos played outfield shagging balls. I think everyone had a pretty good time. I can also see that several lessons are going to be needed to teach Andres and Maria how to throw.

Here is the park with some of our freinds from France in the background.

Here is Maria and Andres playing outfield. You can kind of see me in the background pitching and Luke would be behind me. I'm kind of bummed we didn't get ant action shots of Luke hitting because he did really well.

Throwing practice. We need a lot of work here. the ninos would basically chace down the ball, run it back to me and throw when they were about 3-4 feet from me.

Luke showing that he is "muy fuerte" on the pull up bar.

One of the great things about staying with all of the adoptive families at El Refugio is that there is always several extra hands to help out when you have kids running all over the place. Here is my good friend, Cathy, riding on the see-saw with Andres. I think I will miss her most of all of the people at the compound.

Now, Cathy i taking Maria for a spin.

Andres crawling out of a tube with Maris not too far behind.

Cathy's son and Luke’s friend, David, took a real interest in what we were doing with the wiffle ball and bat. When we had kind of wrapped up and decided to play on the park equipment, David asked if he couldn’t hit a few balls. I obliged and tossed him a few pitches. He didn’t do too bad and I will have to ask Tony tomorrow if he has ever played baseball before. David later tried to put on my glove and wanted to try catching the ball with it. Unfortunately, he’s a left and my glove was oversized AND backwards on him. He also didn’t quite grasp that you catch with the glove hand and throw with the non-glove hand. He wanted to do everything with the glove.

After the park, we decided to head back up/down to the area where the Hard Rock Café was located. It looked liked a very nice area with lots of restaurants to choose from. The previous time we were down there, we though we saw a Crayola Café (like the one in KC) which might be a fun place to take the kids. Turns out it was a Crayola store – not a restaurant as we previously thought. So, we doubled back, walked around some more and settled on a Mexican place called La Taqueria. By the time we arrived, all of the kids were tired and hungry. Traci and I had had it with all of the griping, complaining and pouting. We were settling in for what looked to be a horrible dinner out. However, something clicked after a little while and, in the end, we all had a pretty good time (a margarita and a beer may have helped the older folks deal with things). And the food was by far the best meal we have had outside of El Refugio. Traci and I each got a plat with a variety of tacos and each one was fantastic. The kids stuck with the quesadillas and their plates were cleaned by the time we left. Anyway, I don’t know what this part of Bogota is called, but anyone coming here should check it out if looking for a place to eat. There were also a lot of very nice upscale bars for those in Colombia without kids. It is all right by the Atlantis Plaza and the Hard Rock Café.

We still can't get over the small amount of chips and salsa given out at these Mexican restaurants. By the time this picture was taken, each of us had had a chip and the bowl was 1/3 gone. i guess these people have a better handle on the term "appetizer" than we do. it would also halp explain which there doesn't seem to be many overweight people in Bogota.

A happy family (after adult beverages were finally served).

Maria feeding papi some quesadilla.

Another Maria pout from today (stage 1). Do I look a litle burned out from it all?

I don’t mean to make this the “Andres blog” but he was in a pretty good mood again at dinner. When he is in a good mood and likes his food, he does this little “Andres dance” in his chair which is hysterical. I tried to capture it on video but it is a little dark. I will post it in a separate post so I don’t screw this one up if something goes wrong.

Maria and papi getting into the act.

After dinner, we stopped off at the Crepes & Waffles joint located in that part of town. Crepes & Waffles is another must do while in Colombia (I saw one in Cartagena too). This is some of the best ice cream we have ever had. And the kids love the sundaes.

After I got our cab driver lost trying to give him instructions in Spanish, we made it home. The kids went down to bed without too much of a fight. Traci began packing for the trip home and I started the blog. We said good-bye to Wilma who is working tonight and will not be here when we leave on Wednesday by the time we leave.

Tomorrow morning we hope to get up and out at a good time. If this weather holds, it will be a perfect morning to visit Monseratte. After that, at least one of us has to visit the embassy to pick up the visas. There are a few more odds and ends that we have to finalize, but we think we are just going to hang out at the compound tomorrow night and relax before the long trip home.

We’ve enjoyed the comments and emails from everyone reading the blog. We are extremely happy that everyone is having fun following along as we travel through Colombia trying to get home. I’m almost certain we will have one more post tomorrow night and then we might need to take a break for a couple days after we get home. I will also say, that once we get home the blogging duties will probably be passed back on to Traci.

Traci here: I just wanted to wish my brother a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY (Tuesday, June 10)! Todd--we’re a day short of getting back for it and I hate that, but know that I love you and can’t wait to see you!

A Rainy Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 04:41:00 +0000

Here is our short post (it) for the night:

After today we have a mere 2 full days left in Botoga. Luke and I decided that we can’t really count Wednesday as a day since we will probably be leaving the compound at the crack of dawn. We are just dying to get home.

The kids slept well last night and we didn’t get out of bed until about 8:30. Breakfast closes at 9:00 a.m. and we kind of had to hurry down. Breakfast this morning was two giant plates of French toast for the whole family. My bacon craving is back again. But now I have only a few more days to wait.

After breakfast we went to get cleaned up and go through our morning rituals. You already know about Traci’s “at least 45 minutes to get ready” ritual. She made good time this morning and may have been ready in 42-43 minutes. Another ritual now is the administration of the several medicines Maria is taking. She actually likes taking her medicine and her favorite is the breathing treatment for her bronchitis. It’s just your average looking asthma inhaler, but she gets this kiddie tube attachment. She doesn’t mind the treatments but loves putting everything back in the box.

We also took a few moments to catch up on pictures we had been promising. He’s me in my ruana. I know I posted a picture of Clint Eastwood last night, but I swear, if I just had the hat we would be identical. And i wasn't really drinking a beer - that is just how I plan to normally look wearing my ruana.

We also noticed that the Jesus on the crucifix in our room looks a little effeminate (long hair and wearing a dress). Could this be part of the DaVinci Code? Hope I am not being blasphemous. It just struck us as a little odd.

And, we finally got the kids calmed down enough to get pictures of them with their passports.

It was another typical Bogota day (light rain off & on and clouds). Montseratte was one of the things Traci really wanted to see on this trip and it is looking more and more like we may have to go without. Seems like every time we have really good weather, we have to be somewhere indoors.

We left to the Sunday artisan market at the Hotel Fontana at 10:30 and took a different route getting there. We are growing a little tired of always walking past the same buildings. Our first stop in the market was this lady who hand-makes dresses and sweaters. She has some really nice stuff and Traci fell in love with several items the first time we were there. Only problem then was that we didn’t have a little girl to dress up. I spent most of my time herding kids while Traci negotiated with the dress lady and picked out some items. There are a few things we are having made and she had to stop by the compound tonight around dinner to get a few more things sized for Maria. We bought several more items and this place is by far my favorite for local crafts (no ruanas though). If anyone reading this is coming to Bogota, the hotel is on the opposite corner from the Unicentro and the market is on Sundays. We did find one item that was the perfect size for Maria. She didn’t want to take it off and just loves it. Unfortunately, she is going to have to wait several months after we get home before she can break this thing out.

And here are some pics of the hotel where the market is located.

A couple of additional things about the market . . . I think we finally found the keepsake thing we were kind of looking for to get the ninos. Traci really enjoys scrap booking and we found some great handmade scrapbook covers with sort of a Colombian theme. I think this will be the perfect memento from our stay. Additionally, today’s weather was kind of a light rain which came on and off all day. When the sun would break through it would get kind of hot. The market is not covered but the vendors have umbrellas over their tables. Every time it began to rain, they would bring out plastic sheets to cover their merchandise. It started and stopped raining several times while we were there which had to be a complete headache for these poor folks.

After the market, we went to Poblanos for a Mexican food lunch (the compound doesn’t serve lunch on Sundays). It was okay but I had several issues with this place. First of all, they didn’t have any beer or margaritas (and I was needing one this afternoon). Secondly, they brought us out some guacamole (instead of the standard salsa you get in the States) all with about 8 chips. Eight!! Finally, Traci wasn’t all that hungry and just ordered herself some more guacamole and chili con queso. When it arrived, there were no chips. Traci asked the waiter about chips and he looked at her like she was from Mars. When he returned, he gave her a basket with 8 more chips. It was weird. We reluctantly asked for more chips again after this basket quickly ran out. It was an okay lunch but Poblanos isn’t somewhere I would tell people they had to go.

We had a pretty good day as far as development of relationships between Luke and the ninos. Luke and Andres really get along well - almost like brothers. Luke might sometimes play a little rough with him, but you can see that Andres is really starting to trust Luke. In fact, there are times when Luke is the only one that can get him to eat. As for Luke and Maria, it's still a little cold at times and there is some big-time siblig rivalry there, but there was lots of positive interation today. Lately, Maria has been asking to give hugs and kisses to everyone before she goes to sleep and she even includes Luke in the mix. Now, I don't know if this is just a stall tactic to prolong the inevitable, but it is a step in the right direction. Luke has also been better about including Maria in on things - and while he still whines about what Maria is getting/doing, I think it was a little less today. Here's a picture of Traci pushing Andres' stroller and Luke holding his hand.

And Luke and Andres wrestling on the floor (which later led to our bed, Maria's bed, downstairs, etc.)

The kids got in late naps and we didn’t get them up until about 4:30. Consequently, getting them to bed tonight has been difficult. While they were napping, another French family that used to stay here returned from a week in Santa Marta. They had a wonderful time and we exchanged a few stories about our trips. Unfortunately, they just came to pick up some luggage they had stored. They are going to try staying at that Hotel Fontana where the market was this afternoon. Nice people. Tony was just telling me this morning that a lot of the French familes that adopt in Colombia stay at that hotel. It is reasonable and you can get a room with a small kitchen in it. However, you do have to eat out a lot and that kind of raises the price quite a bit (we have found that eating out in Bogota is not too cheap). Traci and I agreed that we would take our small room, nice people and regular meals at El Refugio over a stay in a hotel.

After naps, we had quick baths and got on Skype to chat with the folks. It was fun but the kids grow more and more restless each time we chat online with the abuelos. I think Maria broke down into a pout at least twice during the conversation. We tried to keep track of her pouts today but couldn’t. It had to be in the low 20’s for the day.

Tonight’s “light dinner” (what we get on Sundays) was some kind of pastry, like a flaky biscuit, filled with chicken and covered in some kind of white gravy, and potato chips. On Sunday nights, they break out the Coca-Cola (every other night we are pretty much left with water). Traci and I thought it was a great meal, but the kids didn’t enjoy it at all. Worst yet, we didn’t have a fruit dessert to bribe the ninos with. I’ll be interested to see how hungry they are come breakfast.

Lucia has told us we are going to the embassy tomorrow but didn’t call tonight to give us a time. So, I figure we’ll get a call in the morning and should plan on leaving in the afternoon (I hope!). There are several forms that we are supposed to have filled out ahead of time and we just realized we haven’t started. So, one of us will probably have to skip breakfast tomorrow to get that done.

To finish, here is another flower picture from Traci. This is a poinsettia we saw growing out of the ground. We’d never seen where someone actually stick on of these in the ground before. It looks like it has seen better days but it was pretty big.

Just a Little Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:06:00 +0000

We had another day today that, while fun, doesn’t leave too much to talk about. This will be a short blog tonight with only a couple pictures. We awoke to another major blow-out from Andres. We think we discovered a problem in that his diapers are just a tad too big. We got a different brand last time and while the size is the same, they seem to run a little bigger. So, we awoke with another mess and more dirty laundry.

We had the usual breakfast except that everyone seems to have moved on to French toast. It’s good stuff but after a few weeks here, I don’t think we’ll be having much French toast for a while when we get home. The coffee was good but I am kind of missing my morning interaction with the people at Starbucks. I will probably have to get them all retrained on what I drink (Grande Americano w/ room).

Personally, my biggest adventure this morning was putting Maria’s new ear rings in her ears. She had ear rings when we got her, but they broke on day one or two and we never got her new ones until last night. Not having any extra holes in my own ears, this pierced ears deal is kind of new to me. I don’t know what happened in the couple weeks that she didn’t have ear rings but I had a devil of a time getting those new ones in. After some minor pushing and pulling we finally got them in. I think she was pretty excited and she even posed for a picture.

The weather was typical Bogota (cloudy and cool) and not a good day for Montseratte. So, we decided to get a jump start on our shopping. One thing we knew we had to get was better fitting diapers. Not the type of shopping we had planned on, but a necessity nonetheless. So, we just kind of headed out toward the Exito/Unicentro Mall and looked around at a few of the local shops surrounding that area. Traci and I bought a few things for ourselves, but otherwise the shopping didn’t go all that well. I did get my “ruana” or poncho. Sorry I do not have a picture of me in it to post. As it isn’t exactly poncho weather in Kansas City, it may be a while before any of you get to see me wearing it. I found a picture on the internet that looks pretty close to me in the ruana.

The Unicentro mall has one of those food court areas. In the past, as a family of three, we pretty much just went around these areas and everyone got something they liked. Adding in two more to the mix makes this routine much more difficult. We got Andres some chicken friend rice that took him some getting used to be he seemed to really like it. Maria had chicken fingers from Frisby’s (again!), and Luke got a sandwich from Subway (he was super impressed that his potato chips tasted just like they do in the States). Traci got a ham and cheese crepe from Crepes and Waffles and I ate leftovers. I guess that is something I will have to get used to. I think I had it best though. I got to sample all of the food (Chinese was the best).

After lunch, it was getting close to the ninos nap time. We left the mall and kind of took a long route home to see a few more things. We ran across a cute little church. We would have liked to have seen the inside, but I think they were closed. We didn’t look very hard since we needed to get back and put a couple of little bodies to bed.

Dinner tonight was spaghetti and French bread. Andres walked into the kitchen and saw the baskets of French bread and began to freak out. The kid loves bread and seems to have had all of his cravings immediately gratified in the past. We told him he had to wait until dinner and he began to wail about as hard and as long as he ever has. As for the spaghetti, I believe we have mentioned that the ninos aren’t real fond of pasta. So, we knew we had our work cut out for us. After he ate his piece of bread, Andres pretty much refused to eat anything else. He began to cry again and Traci took him upstairs – threatening him with bed time. After a few minutes, they both came back down and, after a little more coaxing, Andres ate some spaghetti. Maria was reluctant too, but once she realized there would be no fresh fruit for desert without eating her spaghetti, she gave in and ate about half of the glob we put on her plate. Luke, of course, hit the jackpot again and ate everything on his plate. This was probably the best food day for Luke (French toast, Subway sandwich with real potato chips, and Spaghetti).

Tonight was also the last night in Bogota for our new American friend, Kelly, and her daughter, Michelle. They are excited to head back to the States, but they have a long, long trip ahead of them to Spokane. It was nice having another English speaking friend to talk with. The French people are great, but the conversation is just easier with native English speakers. We wish them well and hope they stay in touch.

Tomorrow, we are hoping to go back to the artisan market we visited in our first full day here in Colombia. (I guess you would have to see the post from 5/18). To date, it is some of the nicest stuff we have seen in Colombia. We were a little hesitant to buy much of anything on that first day since we had so many days ahead of us.

We did see Lucia this morning and she said we were definitely going to the US Embassy on Monday but she didn’t know what time yet. We are preparing to spend at least 3-4 hours there. So, that will take up most of our day. On Tuesday, the trip to the embassy to pick up the visa is pretty quick. So, if we want to get in some last minute sightseeing or shopping, it will have to be then.

Traci here: Just a few responses/thoughts that I haven’t yet included. First, I’m amazed at the lack of window security in this country. Many times we have been up at least three stories and there will be windows open. While this normally wouldn’t be a big deal, the windows have no screens and provide large enough holes that children could easily climb out and fall. Our room at El Refugio is no exception. Fortunately, we have bars on our windows but most don’t. Also, there are very few bugs around here. Outside of a few bug bites the first night we were here and the little bitty moth that was flying around our room tonight, I haven’t seen any bugs. I take that back, there were some microscopic ones that crawled around in the Cartegena Hilton rooms but that was it. We’ve received many e-mails asking what we miss the most besides family and friends. Well, I know my dog is my family, but I had to say that anyway. Outside of that, it has to be certain foods like chips, salsa and queso dip, tacos, hamburgers, good hot dogs, COLD milk, good home-style cooking like fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans (as I have had none here), corn, steak, I could go on. You get the picture. I do have to say that it has been so nice to have our meals planned and fixed for us. I’m not sure how well I am going to do with three kids and preparing meals at a reasonable hour each night. That’s one of my anxiety points right now. Isn’t that silly? But I desperately want to try to eat healthier when I get home. Matt and I (and Luke, too) have both lost quite a bit of weight. Sometimes we can’t seem to get our belts tight enough. And that is largely due to the healthy food we have eaten. We’ve also had people ask how big the kids are and if they are “normal” size. Well, according to the doctor, Andres is 25 lbs and Maria is 31 lbs. The charts here indicate that that is in the lower half for their ages; however, they are fitting appropriately into 2T and 4T clothing. You will not look at them and think they are small, I don’t think. Oh yeah, speaking of being small. . . Laura and Wendy, I have found the perfect country for you two to shop. All of the sizes are quite small here as the people are so little. You guys would have a selection like you’ve never seen before. Plus, the fashions here are awesome. I absolutely love the Colombian styles! That’s all I will say for tonight’s post since Matt promised it to be short. I miss everyone but am getting a little sad at the thought of leaving the country that brought us our children. When we went to visit Susa (their birthplace) the other day, I couldn’t help but get sad that we were taking them away from it all. But it’s been a great trip that’s far exceeded my expectations, and I hope their life in the US does the same for them! Anyway, I am SOOOO looking forward to seeing everyone. People outside of the family have asked if it would be ok to come to the airport. Absolutely! You can call Matt’s folks at our house and they can give you the details or you can e-mail me and I will forward them to you. We can’t wait to see everyone whether it’s that night or days to follow. It’s been great sharing this journey with all of you!

Passports and Doctor Visit - and a Date to Come Home

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 05:19:00 +0000

Lucia called this morning during breakfast. She had a busy day scheduled for us. First stop, get the ninos Colombian passports at 11:00 a.m. Next stop, trip to the doctor for the ninos physicals at 3:00 p.m. We were on track for a possible Wednesday departure.

Before we could do any of that, we still had to finish up some business with Maria’s doctor. She explained that Maria might have a parasite in her belly which would be causing some somewhat loose stools. She asked that we collect a stool sample and bring it to their lab for analysis. She gave us a little cup with a lid and a latex glove which I thought was nice. I don’t know if a lot of U.S. doctors would have provided the glove. Well, Traci and I were out for the rest of the afternoon yesterday and it didn’t have a change to "collect" and get back that day. However, Traci “collected the sample” while I was out last night running to the ATM. So, she gets major points for being the good wife last night.

Anyway, after breakfast I set out for the lab with my Spanish-English dictionary in one coat pocket and a sealed vial of “used food” in the other. I kind of wondered what a robber might think if I got mugged and he emptied my pockets. It takes about 15 minutes to get to the doctor's office at a brisk walk and I have become accustomed to wearing a jacket in weather where I don’t need one (trying to blend into the Colombian culture). I only needed the dictionary once today and after some paper work at the doctor’s office, I made it back to the compound just in time to meet Lucia and Andres (her driver, not our Andres). However, I wasn’t able to stay for the lab results.

The passport office was a pretty wild place. I’ve heard and read stories from other people. To be honest, it seemed that Lucia, Andres and my wife were running in several different directions at once for a while. I was kind of watching the kids which was like herding cats. At one point, I was given a piece of paper and told to go pay some money to man behind a window. I don't ask why - I just do as I am told. But pretty soon we turned in some papers to a woman behind another window and were told to go sit down for a while. Maria and I colored while Andres played with his cars. Luke played Nintendo and read his book. Traci snapped pictures and did some people watching.

Finally, after about 30 minutes of waiting, a guy comes to a window with a stack of passports and just starts reading off names. About eveyone in the office crowds around him - and there was about 40 people in the place. We hit him from several different angles with Andres (the driver), Traci and Lucia standing around him in different areas. Maria loved looking at her Colombian passport – to the point where we had to take it away. We wanted to get a picture of the kids with their passports, but Maria was still mad at us. Maybe tomorrow.

The one thing that confused me a little about the passport office was all of the people out front selling touristy garbage. It just didn’t seem to fit. You have mostly Colombian people going in to get Colombian passports so they can, presumably, leave the country for one reason or another. Why would they want a bunch of junky maps, beads and bracelets from their own country?

We returned to the compound in good time for lunch. Today’s soup: cheese (I think – it was really good though). Main course: ham and cheese – no bread, just ham and cheese. Again, it was good. Sides: salad and potatoes. I had to pretty much inhale my meal and get back to Maria’s doctor for the lab results. You get the lab results in one room and then go down to see the doctor in another room. However, this time I didn’t have my normal English speaking doctor. I could tell by looking at the lab results myself that most of the tests came back normal (I'm not a doctor but it said "normal" after just about each test), but the doctor seemed to be indicating that Maria might have some issue that I didn’t fully understand. I did understand enough to know that it wasn't a very big deal and he gave me yet another prescription for something. When I got back to the compound, I went over the lab results with Carmen and showed her the prescription the doctor gave Maria. Apparently, Maria has been drinking some of the local water – from all of the tooth brushing, no doubt – and it isn’t agreeing with her system. So, he gave her something to kind of dry her up. Carmen said it is pretty common for people to come down with whatever this was called (she told me but I forgot) and not to worry.

Again, we had to leave soon after I arrived back at the compound. Previously, Andres drove us to the passport office in his own car but this time showed up in a cab (no Lucia with us this time). I never asked and was never told what happened to his car. Maybe he was sick of driving in downtown Bogota. I can certainly see how that would be the case. Driving down here is just crazy. Just imagine a place where there are no driving laws. While I am sure they have them, I am also pretty sure that in the last 24 hours I have been in a car that has broken every single one of them at one time or another.

The doctor visit went well and was pretty uneventful. He was a very nice man who spoke very good English. Since we got the kids, we have had a couple of folders of medical records that we couldn't really decipher because they were all in Spanish. He went over the ninos medical records with us and that got us to relax about several things. I guess his job is really just to translate the immunizations records for the kids and to give them brief physicals. During the portion of the time where he was explaining their past medical histories to Traci & me, the ninos pretty much wrecked his little collection of kids’ toys. They were all over the office and Andres treated each one like a soccer ball. As for the physical exam itself, Maria was surprisingly cooperative and Andres warmed up to things pretty quickly.

Back at the compound, we decided to go out to eat tonight at someplace very U.S.A. and we chose the Hard Rock Café. I kind of wanted a real cheeseburger, and knew we could find something there for Luke to eat. (Yes, I had a McDonald’s cheeseburger last night but those things are really pretty lousy. I was wondering today why we even eat those things). We also had some good news to celebrate.

After we got home, Traci called Lucia to see if we would be going to the U.S. Embassy for visas on Monday. Lucia said that we would and that we would have them on Tuesday. Right after that call was finished, Traci was on the phone with Delta to change our return flight reservations. We are coming home Wednesday evening. If you want more details on exactly when we will be in town, call my parents at our house or Traci’s folks at their homes. They have all of the info. We didn’t feel like posting it on the internet.

So, we now have a coming home date and our trip is almost over. However, I guess the rest of the journey is just beginning. I worry a little about Maria and Andres in those first few days in the States, but I feel pretty sure they will warm up to all of our family and friends very quickly (Andres probably will in a matter of minutes).

Back to dinner, the Hard Rock Café is in a little mall called the Atlantis Place. We’d never been in this area before and, while it was dark out, it looked very nice. There appeared to be lots of clubs in the area and lots of people out walking the streets. We might have to visit this place in the day (time permitting). I got my bacon cheeseburger, but it left me a little unsatisfied. It was one of those processed, frozen burgers and I was looking forward to a real hamburger. Luke had pizza bread and the ninos had chicken tenders. Traci ate nachos and we got a plate of onion rings for the family. Luke has been whining about getting some onion rings for weeks and ended up only eating one.

That was about it for the day. We have some shopping planned for the next couple of days. If the weather holds up, we’d like to visit Monseratte (the big mountain by the city). The rest of our days will probably be filled with planning what we want to eat and do when we get home.

I'll end with a picture we had taken at the photo shop outside of the passport office. I don't know if I would call it a "professional" portrait, but it turned out pretty good. Personally, I kind of like the saintly glow around my head. I think it is fitting.

Officially a Family of 5

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:37:00 +0000

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.

Haircuts and Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 04:14:00 +0000

I took a nap this afternoon with the ninos and Traci typed some stuff to be placed in the blog. So, this is my wife getting her two cents in:

I thought I'd better respond to a few things on tonight's post. I can't let my husband do all of my talking, right? I didn't want you all to think Colombia had gotten the best of me! Matt seemed to have poked fun at my comment that my hair is “fried.” Well, I couldn’t possibly hope for him to understand being a man of so little hair. But that is exactly what my hair is. Anyone traveling here before ever have this problem? I started noticing a change before we left for Cartegena. Then, it got worse. (Of course the hyper-chlorinated pool probably didn’t help.) Today I even conditioned it twice. It seems to be better, but I have a feeling that the hard water here can’t be helping. Any suggestions out there? Marilyn—you asked where my loyalty is with the Royals. Believe me, I am keeping track of their standings. My in-laws went to the game on Sunday so we knew the horrible streak finally snapped. Plus, Luke gets updates from various people so I get my Royals fix through those avenues as well. Believe me, I am still a fan thousands of miles away and can’t wait to get home for a game! A response to the picture of me and the chicken (pollo) potato chips yesterday. We bought them for Andres and I tasted one. I told Matt I found it funny to be able to say that a potato chip “tastes like chicken.” So, when he was photographing it, I truly believed he was getting a kick out of that with me. The Aguila poster behind me definitely told me otherwise. Unfortunately, looks like I spoiled his fun! Also in response to the pictures of the city yesterday, I was so disappointed when I saw them on the post. I know we have said it more than once, but they just didn’t come close to doing any justice to the beauty that we saw. I had my breath taken away by a few houses up on the mountains. They were amazing and stretched across a large part. Incredible beauty dulled by a mundane camera! On to other things. . . it’s good to be back at El Refugio. I totally miss our two rooms at the Hilton. Matter of fact, I think I hit a wall last night and finally decided that I am 100% ready to come home. Bedtime was a bit of a chore last night, but when five people, all on different “bedtime” schedules, try to blend into a small room, it’s a recipe for disaster at times. The kids (M&A) want someone in the room even though we are trying to gently work past this and we believe it will be much easier at home when everyone has their own bedroom. And if anyone else is in the room with them, you have to have the lights out and there can be no movement because they are both so curious about what you are doing that they will not go to sleep. Last night, I just wanted to lay in bed and read my book (impossible as I have no book light) and Luke wanted to watch a movie in bed (impossible b/c both M&A will want to know what he is watching). So Luke and I had to lay absolutely still until both kids fell asleep which was close to 10pm. Luke finally gave up and went to bed. I sat and dreamed about being in my own bedroom at home. : ) Not only is the bedtime routine an ordeal at times, waking up can be, too. Maria goes through the night without coughing and then starts in a little before 7am almost every day. Matt can sleep through it. It has awakened the rest of us, in particular me, everyday. I have tried to get her to drink water. She won’t. Matt finally forced her to drink it this morning after Luke and I were hopelessly awake and then she began crying. It’s a no-win situation. Again, just another great reason to come home and be in our own rooms. But the best reason to get home to our own bedrooms has to be so that we aren’t all subjected to Andres’ horrible, disgusting, indescribable diaper every morning. It’s absolutely intoxicating. I have already determined that I need to get out the old Diaper Genie. However, does anyone know if they still make the liners for that thing or is there a new product on the market? So with all of these things in addition to a shower that shoots out water like it’s coming from a garden hose and a toilet that we can not put toilet paper down (however, Matt and I are both frequently guilty as old habits die hard), the thought of being home is now on my mind 24/7. The only things making it easier? 1) Knowing that we appear to have a countdown in sight now, 2) I have had two days in a row of warm showers here in El Refugio, 3) I have a beautiful family that I am so happy to be a part of. This situation is obviously temporary and I would do it all again!

Matt again: I’m glad Traci got the opportunity to add a little to the blog while I get to wrap things late at night after everyone is in bed. One of the reasons I enjoy doing the blog is that I get to do it late at night after everyone is in bed and I can finally have some time to myself. We are on top of one another here and it is easy to get on someone’s nerves once in a while. That is one of the biggest day-to-day struggles we deal with here. A few quiet moments on the computer is the salve for my own irritation. That and a couple of beers (Club Colombia or Aguila).

Traci already described Maria’s morning coughing attack. After I made her drink a glass of water and she started crying, I got her up and we went downstairs for breakfast. We were hoping that Andres might sleep a little later, but he joined us after a few minutes. Traci and Luke escaped to the Juan Valdez coffee shop (Colombia’s version of Starbucks – but I hear that is coming soon) for a little away time and to make sure Luke got something besides toast for breakfast. As per usual, Maria had cereal and Andres had French toast. I kind of cut Maria off this morning from ordering a fried egg only to not eat it. I had coffee and a piece of toast. Maria insisted that I put some jelly on it too.

Since the first week, Traci has been “suggesting” (or “complaining” depending upon how you hear it) that Maria needs a hair cut. There is a place not too far from here that kind of specializes in kids’ hair that we decided to give a try. There is a place in KC that is similar but this place is much, much better. The pictures kind of describe it all, so I won’t go into detail about the place.

Even though we had discussed this several times previously with Maria, she was pretty traumatized at first.

Maria saying goodbye to her Repunzel-like mane.

A sucker and a Stawberry Shortcake video later and she was much more subdued (or at least resigned to her fate).

And voila!!

Andres, on the other hand, took everything in stride and seemed to enjoy himself. Of course, as soon as they put him in that car seat, he was in his element. His video of choice was Barney.

Luke even got his hair cut. He didn't really need one, but i think he saw that he could play xbox while they did it. His game of choice, FIFA 2005 Soccer.

Here is our new and improved family. The spray in Andres' hair is purple while Luke opted for the green. At first, Luke's hair was just spiked green, but he wanted it changed to a mohawk style like Andres (which he didn't know was an option). When they combed it together, some of the green washed out but it was still pretty green close up. And is if they didn't look enough like outsiders with thier green and purple hair, they all wore KU shirts (I am sure Traci will again claim this was just coincidence).

After the haircuts, we walked back to the compound. The last few days have been relatively rain free in Colombia. Of course, yesterday was mostly spent in a car and in a hole in the ground. Today, we walked around quite a bit and had a perfect day.

On the way home, I caried Maria for a little bit and she made me stop so she could pick a flower for her mami.

Back at the compound, things were busy. Lucia was here meeting with some folks and he son, David, had just returned with the other U.S. family from the embassy. We met with Lucia for a bit and she said that they were still trying to get sentencia arranged for tomorrow, but hoped we wouldn't be too disappointed if it occurred the following day. We just told her we knew she was doing her best for us. Hopefully, she didn't hear the sounds our out hearts crashing to the floor.

I can't even remember what we did for lunch today. Nevetheless, I am sure that Luke didn't eat much again. We got the kids down for naps, and I fell asleep too (I think the combination of late nights and geting up a little early with Maria got me).

Afterwards, we went to Mimo's for a little ice cream with Kelly and her daughter, Michelle. It was fun sharing more stories about our respective homes with Kelly. After that, we went to the Maku artisan market and Kelly & Michelle went back to the compound. Maku was three floors of different books, crafts and t-shirts. We found some interesting stuff, but didn't go overborad with the buying. Still, it was interesting looking around and we didn't get back until just before dinner.

At dinner time, we hit the jackpot. They were serving the baked chicken dish again that Luke likes. Finally, Luke eats!! We also get a different rice dish with each dinner. Jackpot again as Luke liked that too. He didn't much go for the sauteed zucchini (none of the kids did), but Traci and I really enjoyed it. Desert was grenadilla which only the ninos seem to enjoy. I had some too, but just wanted to try and imprint that taste on my brain. I don't think I will have it again after we leave Colombia.

After dinner, Lucia called back to let us know that the sentencia would be going forward tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. After that, we are going to try to drive out to Susa to get new birth certificates. I previously thought that would be done in Ubate because Susa is so small and Ubate is the place where we got the kids. However, since the births were registered in Susa, we have to go there. I am the only one that has to go and we are trying to decide whether Traci can go too. She really wants to go, and I kind of want her there. However, we will be gone for several hours and Luke isn't ready to watch two little kids yet (and we wouldn't want to place that burden on someone else here). We don't have a solution yet and will talk about it some more tomorrow morning. Meeting at 2:00 p.m. in Zipaquira and then trying to get new birth certificates in Susa afterwards puts some time constraints on us. I just don't know if we can get it all done in time but we will try. Wish us luck!

While we had several different people present at the compound this afternoon, Traci set about to make my job this evening more difficult tonight and took a few pictures of the compound. First of all, here is the picture of Lucia's son, David, that we didn't get yesterday. I think he really liked Andres' haircut.

I guess we start with our new room. As I said before, it is one of the two rooms upstairs. It's cozy, but clean and fairly comfortable. See the pile of laundry in the left back forner of the room? That is where the room essentially ends as there is a closet there. And the window over the master bed overlooks the family room.

Downstairs, is sort of a family room, common area. In this picture it is filled with our French friends. On the right are Anita and Oliver who are adopting Yhan (not pictured here). I think Yhan is about 5-6 years old and he has kind of taken over Luke's role as David's partner in crime. I like Anita and oliver because they drink beer at odd times during the day (my kid of folks). To the left of them are Tony, Cathy and David, our french firneds that we have written so much about in the past. Tony own a home electronics store in France. They plan to be here for about 6-8 weeks adopting Jeremy who is sitting on the lady's lap in the chair further left. That lady is Carmen and she is adopting a 9 year old girl named Anjelica. I think that might be her also sitting in the chair. You can't really see her, but she is just beautiful.

Here is Tony, David and Jeremy. Tony doesn't speak a lot of English, but his wife, Cathy, has been working with me on some easy phrases like "good morning," "good night," and "how are you?" I won't even try to write that in French. I just kind of know how they sound. And that is Yhan in the background.

When you walk into the front door, there is a little office area to the left. This is where I usually do my blog entries. They also have a phone line to the U.S. here. You can see Kelly, the other U.S. mom, sitting at the computer. Carmen, the lady who kind of runs the non-domestic type operations here is seated on the left.

Here is a better picture of Carmen. She is a great translator (speaks 3-4 languages), guide and friend. When our arrangements to Cartagena got a little botched, she went down to the Avianca office with me at the Unicentro mall and helped to try and straighten things out. We'd be pretty lost without her.

This is the eating area where everyone gathers together for meals. I'm kicking myself because i can't remember the name of the lady trying to escape the picture. She is one of the great staff people they have here. For instance, this afternoon Maria fell off the swing (again) today and hit her head. When I carried her inside, I couldn't even get the Spanish word for "ice" out of my mouth before this lady scooped her out of my arms and started calming her down. Anyway, we sit in the table closest to the camera, kind of on the left there. You can see Andres' high chair. Traci usually sits to the right of Andres, then me, Luke and Maria.

And in the kitchen is our friend Wilma. I've already said enough about her.

Next to where Wilma was standing in the kitchen is my favorite part of the compound - the little old fashioned looking coffee maker. This is what keeps me going some days.

And tearing out of the laundry room in the back of the compound is Maria.

It may not be the Cartagena Hilton, but while we are in Bogota there isn't anyplace else we would rather stay. In fact, we kind of begged Carmen to find a way for us to come back here when we returned from Cartagena. The agency we work with uses a couple B&B type places here in Bogota and, as far as we're concerned, we got the best one.

That is it for tonight. Let's hope we have some more good news to give tomorrow night.

Zipaquira and the Salt Cathedral

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:36:00 +0000

Gosh, I didn’t realize how much the pictures meant to the blog stalkers. I always thought it was my interesting writing and wry sense of humor that kept people looking at the blog. I have a couple pictures from yesterday I guess I can post.

Here is Traci and the ninos. Maria is currently in a stage 2 pout right here. I figure there are about 5-6 stages of her pouts. So stage 2 can pretty much be ignored. Stages 5 & 6 aren't bad though. I have seen worse.

Driving out to the airport, we passed the old, historic part of town again. Traci took some photos of the wall surrounding the old city. In the first photo, you can see a small, dirt soccer field some people were playing on. Just like in Kansas, any extra flat patch of ground is soon turned into a soccer field.

Traci, Andres and Luke on the plane waiting for lift off. Don't they look like they just got out of a sauna (i.e. Cartagena airport)?

This picture is pretty terrible. Maria was listening to my ipod on the plane and would flip through songs until she found on she liked. Here she stopped on a song by my cousin Ryan's band, The Rinse. Yeah, I bought the album. It was kind of a bargin on iTunes. Anyway, I am posting it as proof that Ryan has a new fan.

Back in Bogota, breakfast at the compound was pretty much the same. Again, Maria insisted on a fried egg and only ate cereal. Andres ate everything and Luke ate two pieces of toast with butter and sugar on them. Traci ate the French toast (again). Anymore, I pretty much just let everyone order and eat whatever nobody else is eating. We tried to eat early because they were going to feed us an early lunch due to the fact that we had to leave a little early for our appointment with the judge. So, the next few hours we kind of spent getting ready to get ready to leave. The kids played a bit and I ironed my clothes which were pretty wrinkled from being in storage here at the compound while we were in Cartagena. Traci worked on her hair which she says is “totally fried” at this point in the trip. Apparently, I am coming home with a bald wife by the end of the trip (which should cut down on the “at least 45 minutes” to get ready routine).

Lunch was a little busier than usual. We had the kids all dressed up to see the judge and didn’t want them to spill anything on themselves. So, we probably spent more time hovering over them than we did eating out own lunch. Our only mishap was that Andres spilled his water on his shirt (thank gawd it wasn’t juice). Today, we had soft tacos and French fries. They were pretty good but way too big to pick up and eat with your hands. Therefore, several hands were required in getting the ninos fed while keeping them clean. Maria ate well, Andres ate everything and Luke ate nothing. I don’t know what we can do to feed Luke. I mean, if he won’t eat tacos, there isn’t much else to be tried. Now he is reverting way back to his “well, it looks different so I don’t want to eat it” stage.

Here are the ninos all dressed up and ready to meet the judge. They don’t look very thrilled in the pictures, but they were actually in good spirits. Traci says the matching yellows was just a coincidence.

Here is the family. We are standing in the living room of the compound. Behind us is the front door. Just past the yellow wall on the left are the stairs up to our room. I don’t know if we have done a very good job of describing the El Refugio compound, but we will try to do better in the future.

David, our driver, translator and tour guide, stopped by a little after one. As I explained before, David is the son of Lucia who is our agency’s point person in Colombia. He speaks great English and seems to know just about everything about the area we are in (and if he was making it up, he did a good job of keeping things interesting). The court where the legal proceedings are taking place is up north a bit in Zipaquira. We rode in David's car and took pretty much the same route that we took on the way to Ubate to get the kids.

We are in the mountains but were on a little highway that kind of runs through a valley between them. Once out of Bogota, there are farms, cows, greenhouse and some very nice homes tucked away in the mountains. I tried to get a few shots from the moving car on the way.

This is some kind of restaurant or banquent hall that looks like a castle. We thought it was neat and sort of out of place.

Zipaquira is a pretty small town, but still much larger than Ubate. I took a few pictures driving into town.

As we were driving through familiar territory, Traci asked David if sometimes when they drove kids back out to these areas they recognized stuff and started to freak out a little. David said he had seen it happen but it was very rare. Sure enough, as we got into Zipaquira, Maria began to cry. Luckily, we quickly arrived at our destination. At least, David parked the car but I couldn't see a courthouse anywhere and assumed we would have to walk a bit. Nope, the courthouse was right next door. I've been in quite a few courthouses in my life and I don't know how I missed this one (insert sarcasm here).

We arrived a few minutes after 1:00 which had me a little worried that we would be in trouble (we would in the States). But there were no problems and the judge was ready to see us right away. We were ushered into a small conference room on the top floor (that little triangluar window at the top of the building in the picture). I think everyone was too anxious to get this over with to be nervous. The judge came in and just had a pleasant discussion with us and the kids. Maria seemed to be having fun and Andres had his "flirt mode" in overdirve. He was sitting on the judge's lap giving her hugs and kisses and she ate it up. I hope for his sake he can keep that action up once he outgrows his "Webster phase." The judge asked Luke a few questions and he gave great honest answers. For instance, she asked if he sometimes fought a little with his new siblings and he said, "yes." She asked which one he fought with the most and after careful thought he said his sister. A toughter question was given to Andres when he was asked to point to his daddy. At first he pointed to David (which I am sure made him a little uncomfortable). Then he pointed to the wall and some objects on the counter. I don't know if he ever got it right, but Maria was shouting the answer in his ear the whole time. It was pretty funny, but I might have to wear a bigger "papi" badge in the future.

The judge was a terrific lady. She was distinguished, classy and provided us with what turned out to be a very nice visit. She even agreed to stand with us all for a picture when we were done.

When it was over, we stopped off at a little minimarket next door for sodas, juice and chips.

These chips were really good. They taste just like chicken (I was actually trying to take a picture of the Aguila girl in the poster behind Traci. She was wearing a heck of a lot less than a bag of chips in the poster).

Traci thinks I am getting everyone's hopes up too much with my talk about sentencia and coming home. I'll just give the facts as best we know them and let everyone else draw their own conclusions. Soon after we left the courthouse, the judge signed the sentencia papers. These papers also require the signature of our attorney, Oscar, and the lady from the children's services that we met with when we got the kids and at integracion. Oscar happened to be in Zipaquira later that day and signed the papers. So, all we are waiting on is children's services and I believe she also works in Zipaquira.

If the papers get done early in the morning, we can drive out to Zipaquira to get them and continue on to Ubate to get the birth certificates changed. We want to do this all in one trip because they are so close together and way up north. If the papers are not signed until the afternoon, we will probably have to wait until Thursday before we do the trip to Zipaquira & Ubate.

After that, we need to get Colombian passports for the ninos and physicals. I think, but I am not sure that these can be taken care of in a day. The physicals are a requirement for U.S. visas and are pretty cursory (I would liken it to getting your medical release form signed to play high school football, but those who know me know that is not a good example).

Running into the end of the week, our problem is with the U.S. Embassy. A visa requires 24 hours to turn around. However, they do not accept new applicaitons on Friday. So, if we can complete all of the other steps before the end of the week, we can probably vist the embassy on Monday and have visas on Tuesday. That would possibly mean coming home on Wednesday. This of course assumes we have no glitches in the Matrix. We still haven't called Delta to make arrangements to come home. When that happens, we will let everyone know and we can pretty much call that a firm coming home date.

On the way to Zipaquira, Traci had expressed interest to David in the Salt Cathedral which is in the mountains next to the town. As we were heading back to the car, he offered to take us there for a quick tour. Even though the kids hadn't had naps, they were in pretty good spirts and we agreed to go.

By way of background, salt has been mined from the mountains surrounding Zipaquira for hundreds of years and is still being mined today. After much of the salt was mined out of a particular area, they made it into a sort of cathedral. Actually, what we toured was the second salt cathedral. The original was closed in the early 1990's because it was unsafe (if you can imagine a cathedral made of salt in an area where it rains practically every day, I'm not surprised - even if it is under ground).

So, here is the entrance. At the entereance we met our English speaking guide named Nixon (yes, like the president). Normally, on weekends and holidays this place is packed. Today, however, we pretty much had the run of the place.

After you walk in, the first section you go through are the stations of the cross. In each station, Jesus is represented by the cross and there are various forms of symbolism used to depict each scene in each station. Here are pictures of a couple of the stations. I've kind of forgotten what the symbolism is in each of these photos or what station they are from. One example (of which I do not have a picture of), is a cross with huge boulders on either side. Each rock represents Mary Madalene and the Virgin Mary. The ground in front was pretty rugged and torn up and is suppsed to represent the rocky ground that women have to walk on. Get the picture? As you can see that it is a pretty subdued sort of symbolism. Honestly, as pretty as it all was, by the 14th station I felt kind of like I just waled past 14 crosses made of salt.

Luke and Andres taking in some heavy symbolism. I don't think either of them got "the calling" the become priests on this tour.

Here is some of the salt build up on the walls of the tunnels we walked through. And Nixon, our guide, pulled some fools gold out of one of the walls and gave it to Luke. He thought that was pretty neat. Personally, I was terrified at how crumbly the walls were.

This is the chapel where they still give mass on Sundays and will even perform weddings if you have a little cash. The relief that Luke and Andres are checking out is actually made of marble - not salt. It is sort of a recreation of Michelangelo's "Creation (?)" painting in the Sistene Chapel with a few modifications (no face of God, God's hand is bigger and the fingers touch).

This is the choir loft in the back of the chapel.

This is an area where they can do baptisms in a separate chamber off to the left of the chapel. And, yes, it is really about as dark in this place and it shows in the photos.

Traci, Luke and Maria emerging from the mine with our guide Nixon. I asked where he learned English so well and he said he taught himself by studying at home and watching TV shows with subtitles. Maybe there is hope for me yet.

In all, it was a worhtwhile trip. They even had a 3-D movie at the end that talked a little about how the mine was made and how the salt was used, but we had to leave right before it ended because we realized that we had been in the place for well over an hour (the time we told David we would be leaving as he waited for us outside). I don't think this place is in Kathy's 1,000 Place You Have to See Before You Die book, but it should be (better than the Sofitel).

David wasn't at all agitated that we were late getting out of the time. On the way back, he even took us on a little bonus driving tour of Zipaquira. I can't recall the name of this Church (I'm not sure David knew either), but it was pretty.

The streets are pretty narrow. At one point, we had oncoming traffic and that was kind of tricky.

Luke's favorite part of the trip through Zipaquira was this sight. This guys drives his truck around town loaded up with kitchen wares trying to sell to people. He even has a bell or something that he rings like the icecream man. I have to admit, the thought of women running out of their homes at the sound of the bell and yelling "cocina! cocina!" (kitchen! kitchen!) at the top of their lungs instead of "ice cream! ice cream!" made me laugh.

Heading back to Bogota was a bit of a bear. We were in rush hour traffic and it took well over and hour to get back to the compound. Nevertheless, David kept it interesting with his stories and just being a tour guide. He is as free of a spirit as I have ever met and I am bummed that we didn't get a picture of him for all of you. One interesting story he touched on was how he went hitchhiking with his girlfriend when he was 15 year old. In Colombia?!?! Although pretty much everyone we have met in Colombia is extremely nice, David has to be one of the nicest people and most interesting characters we have met on our trip. Oh, and to the Kitts family, he said he remembers you in his head and his heart. I could never say things like that without getting punched by somene. But it seems to come from him naturally.

Dinner was a breaded and fried pork (?) and rice. Luke had two bites of pork but no rice. Even the ranch dressing we brought from the States couldn't help him. We were then served bananas for dessert. The ninos are getting much better about finishing their dinners before "demanding" their dessert.

No baths tonight which made things a little easier. Maria has to take a shower and I end up having to stand in the door to make sure she gets all of the soap out of her hair. I'm usually about as wet as she is when it is all done (the bathtub at the Hilton was so much better). For Andres, we have a little tub that we fill with water in the shower. It's a little small for him but does the job.

Bed time reading was 102 Dalmations (in Spanish). Another bed time story the kids really like but i have neglected to mention is "Perro Grande . . . Perro Pequenllo . . ." I like that one too because the Spanish words are pretty easy to read. I kind of fumble through the Lion King and Dalmations. As I told Traci tonight, half of the time i don't even know what I am saying, I am just concentrating on getting my pronunciation right. The kids weren't real ready for bed when I was done, but I put them down anyway. There was a lot of difficulty in getting them to go to sleep tonight, but it's a long story and I am too tired to tell it tonight.

That's about it for day whatever we are on now. Each day we grow more anxious to go home. Even Maria is a little anxious to see her new home. I showed her the video tape of her room again this morning and she just giggles (it was incentive not to screw things up in front of the judge later in the day). There is light at the end of the tunnel and we should know a little more tomorrow on when we can make those changes to our Delta tickets to come home.

Back to Bogota!

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:04:00 +0000

We made it out of Cartagena without a hitch (and with my new belt notch intact). We had to wear our “Bogota clothes” to the airport which meant pants for everyone. If the Cartagena airport was air conditioned, I sure couldn’t tell. They had fans going everywhere, but unless you were seated right in front of one it was pretty miserable. The only hiccup came when we arrived in Bogota and our ride wasn’t there to meet us at the airport. We waited around for a while looking for someone carrying a sign with our name on it but pretty soon the baggage area was clear and we were the last ones left. Against advice and better judgment, we snagged a cab. However, everything turned out great. Our cabbie gave us a reasonable rate and got us back to our home-away-from-home in good time. Turns out that I think I gave the incorrect arrival time to our hosts here in Bogota. So, the cab they sent arrived at the airport about the same time we arrived back at El Refugio. My bad. I hope I get a chance to make it up to the guy who drove out to the airport looking for us.

We were greeted at El Refugio by our French friends Cathy and Tony (boys are David and Jeremy). I think Luke was kind of happy to see David since they get along pretty well. We were also surprised to see the U.S. family that made a quick one-night stop here at the compound while we were here last. I can’t recall if I mentioned them before they just stayed a quick night before leaving early the next morning for Florencia – which is pretty much Amazon country. They have two teenaged daughters who came on the trip and adopted a 9 year old girl. She is very sweet and a cute kid. However, the two girls and their dad are heading back to Spokane, WA tomorrow at about 5:30 a.m. It was nice to see them again, however briefly. It’s always nice to converse is clear English with someone. They are sleeping in our old room upstairs and we are across the hall (where the Adelmans stayed). In fact, I accidentally walked in there later in the evening out of habit. It was embarrassing but could have been much worse (everyone was decent).

We were a little disappointed that some of the families were gone. In fact, the only people still here were Cathy, Tony and their boys. During our absence, we lost Natalie and her mom, the other Spanish family that gave us a copy of the “Pincho” song for Maria, and two French families that were also very nice. We did gain another French family, Carmen and her new daughter (Advice to people staying in El Refugio in the future – you might want to pick up a couple French phrases. We’ve had lots of families from France). I was really kind of hoping the Pincho family would stick around a bit longer. They were really fun although their English was worse than my Spanish and speaking was difficult. Wilma, one of the housekeepers/cooks/guides that works here, said it was a pretty sad day last Friday and they had a line of cabs out front taking people away. The place seems much quiter and isn't nearly as full.

Speaking of Wilma, she is clearly my favorite of the housekeepers in the compound. She is always very nice and extremely patient with my Spanish. She is also the one who complimented me on my Spanish in our first couple days here which gave her an immediate leg up on anyone else. She also keeps talking to me and pushing me to speak more Spanish. It kind of hurts my head after a while but I suppose it is good for me. She works here for 24 hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and sleeps in a little room in the back. It takes a special kind of person to put up with all of the kids running around here and people like me for weeks on end (she even has three kids of her own at home). Another sort of funny Wilma story . . . we weren’t in the door more than a couple minutes when she reminded us that the kids need jackets if they are going outside to play. What is it with the Colombians and their “cold” weather? It’s kind of like the people in Bogota are trying to remind us that all of Colombia isn’t the hot, muggy place we see in the movies. Nevertheless, we had Maria’s jacket handy because we knew people in the airport would give us “looks” if our kids ran around with short sleeves.

We arrived too late for lunch and tried putting the ninos down for a naps. We left Luke “in charge” while Traci and I ran out to get diapers and some more cash. When we returned, everyone was up and running around. So much for naps today! The kids were clearly tired, but I think a little excited to be back at the compound. Additionally, some of the kids here were anxious to see them and I think they were going into our room to look at them. So, even though Luke was “in charge,” it really isn’t his fault.

Dinner was fried plantain and some chicken & rice dish with some sliced salchichas mixed in. Desert was fresh oranges. We had a late breakfast this morning and the ninos got a snack (of somewhat dubious nutritional value) on the plane. So, we were all pretty hungry by the time dinner was served at 7:00 p.m. Luke, however, reverted back to his old ways and turned his nose up at the plantain and chicken & rice. He did eat some of the oranges. The poor kid hasn’t eaten much in the last couple days. I may have to take him out for something if he doesn’t get a good breakfast and lunch in tomorrow.

Now, the good news of the day . . . As I predicted, Lucia called tonight with some important information. The judge wants to meet the family tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. Lucia’s son, David (our translator for the day), will be meeting us here at 12:30 to take us all to the court (I still can’t recall where it is, looking at the map, I want to say it is in Zipaquira which isn’t quite as far north as Ubate). From what I understand, this is fairly common in the smaller courts and usually the judge gets the “sentencia,” or final adoption decree, signed by the next day. If that happens, there is a chance that we could be home next Tuesday or Wednesday night of next week (conservatively estimating). So, if you are the praying sort of people, keep them coming.

The kids went to bed tonight with some difficulty. In Cartagena, they did pretty well with us leaving the room to go next door to our room. They were joined rooms and we left the door cracked. Tonight, we tried laying them down and leaving the room, but Maria started screaming for “papi” at the top of her lungs. I will chalk it up to over-tired. We will try again tomorrow night. Otherwise, I may end up sleeping in the hallway between their two rooms when I get home.

I am sorry, but there will be no pictures on this blog entry. I think we took a couple but nothing that would be of interest to anyone. I mean, how many times do you want to see pictures of us on a plane or standing by our luggage? So, I will save you that.

I’ve been lingering over my blog listening to the Pens v. Red Wings game on the internet (still haven't been able to find anything on TV). Depressing! The Wings almost had it won in regulation but the Penguins tied it up with about 30 seconds left. Then I had to sit through almost exactly 2.5 overtimes just to hear my Wings get beat. Maybe the Bob Probert Wings jersey is bad luck. I will have to throw it in the laundry before game 6 to wash out some of the bad karma from this game.

Last Night in Cartagena

noreply@blogger.com (The Jensen Family) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 03:12:00 +0000

The single worst thing about the Hilton is that we have to pay for internet access (oh, and you have to pay for bottled water). And it isn’t a token fee either. It kind of burns me up a little, particularly when I know there are lots of places in the States that I can get online for free. Our time runs out tonight at about 11:45. So, I am hoping we can get this one done before then. We should, since we having done anything except swim and lay around.

When we woke up this morning, Luke wasn’t feeling well. He “gave back dinner” twice this morning. He blamed it on the hot dog with lettuce I brought him for lunch yesterday. Could be. He didn’t eat much at dinner either. Additionally, Andres had about the worst “blow-out” we have ever seen. Traci even had to wash his jammie bottoms. I think we are going to have to watch his fruit and bean intake. Those are two of his favorites and he ate a lot of that yesterday.

So, this morning for breakfast it was just me, Maria and Andres. They were pretty good and I didn’t have too hard of a time managing them. I pretty much stuck with coffee and fruit, but the kids ate a lot of my fruit.

The day was about as perfect out as you could ask for. Maybe a little hot. Maria even asked if we could go to the pool this morning (like we had other plans). Again, I was kind of on my own with Maria and Andres for about the first 20-30 minutes at the pool. They were good and took turns jumping into the pool and onto papi. Luke and Traci finally made it down and Luke swam for a bit. He’s feeling a lot better, but only swam a little bit. He also spent some time in the shade playing game boy.

We had a late breakfast, so I only gave the ninos a quick snack before it was time to take a nap around 1:00 p.m. Traci and Luke got room service and I went on my afternoon trek for money. I believe I mentioned this yesterday, but the nearest ATM is about 1 mile away. I enjoyed my little hike yesterday and was looking forward to today’s stroll. As we are kind of on a peninsula, it is kind of hard to vary my route, but I still I ended up overrunning the bank by about a block. On the way back, I grabbed a chicken empanada from some guy selling them on the street in front of a restaurant. With a bottle of water in one hand and my empanada in the other, I continued walking home. I think it had a lot of jerk seasoning in it as it kind of tasted like that and the innards were yellowish. It was quite tasty and I probably would have had another if I hadn’t walked away. Still, it is probably best that I just risk eating one at this point. We have a lot of traveling tomorrow.

My impressions of Cartagena are that it is kind of touristy, but still not nice enough to spend a bunch of cash to vacation to. I mean, there are some nice resorts (ours, and I hear Las Americas is nice too), but the hotels downtown are kind of “stay at your own risk.” If you are going to stay downtown, there are some smaller places that I have heard are nice. I even walked past a couple places that looked pretty decent. However, these places have no pool and are a bit of a walk to the beach. Oh, and if you like beach vacations, this is definitely not the place. It looks like they have done a lot of work to expand and improve the Hilton beach, but the sand is pretty poor and there always seems to be junk in the water. Cartagena is probably more fun for the young and adventurous – not a couple of old people dragging three kids around. I told Traci the other night that it is a good cruise ship stop, but a day or two in Cartagena is enough. Nevertheless, if coming to Cartagena, I give a strong recommendation for the Hilton where we are staying. Lots of people here speak at least some English. The place is extremely clean and all of the staff have been great. If you don’t feel like venturing out, they pretty much have everything you need right here. If you do want to get out, there are lots of little restaurants within walking distance. Around a mile away, where my ATM is located, there are some pretty nice, higher end shops and boutiques. Traci here: And the Hilton workers come up and tell you when you are getting burnt. One Hilton lady was extremely concerned about Luke today when she saw he had pink skin. I appreciated the fact that she was worried. It’s nice that others here will tell you when you are burning as it’s tough to know. What she didn’t know is that burn was from 4 days ago and his skin takes on that glow all summer long. So as not to offend, Luke put his shirt on and shortly thereafter, we left the pool. I will caution those of you who may come here for adoption purposes. . . you will definitely get a lot of looks here. People seem to be quite fascinated with two, overly white American adults carrying around two clearly Colombian children. We’ve had questions asked directly to us and you can tell others are questioning privately amongst themselves. It makes me go back to my question of how Colombians really feel about us coming in and taking the kids. Bottom line, I’m sure we’ll get similar looks in the U.S. It just feels different here as our children are a part of this culture.

We’ve had some comments asking about a timeline for when we can expect to return. The answer to that is that there really isn’t one. We did luck out in that our legal papers were filed in a smaller court outside of Bogota which means things should progress a little faster. However, nobody can tell us what “faster” means. I’m holding out a happy thought that our “sentencia” will be on Wednesday after we get back. If that happens, there is a slim chance we could be home Saturday/Monday/Tuesday time frame. After “sentencia” (when we get the final adoption decree) we have to get new birth certificates in Ubate and take the kids to get passport photos, passports, physicals and visas. This process takes about 3-4 days depending upon how quickly you can move. Traci: I love Matt’s optimism. I hope he is right. However, I am praying for Sentencia by week’s end. That would put is home before Father’s Day! Regardless, Luke and I have already decided that we can’t wait to come home and have Jose Peppers cheese dip and salsa. My nighttime dreams are starting to be infiltrated by dreams of food we are missing!

Yes, it all sounds like a long time but from talking with some of the families from France and Spain, they usually expect to be in country for 5-8 weeks. I don’t recall the name of the agency most of them use, but it really makes me appreciate the people we are working with at CHI. I was going to come home a little early with Luke if it looked like it was going to go too far into the 4th week. However, now that we are down here and as much as Luke wants to go home, I can see that I had better stay. It’s not the safest place for a blonde lady with two little kids. Also, Traci’s Spanish is barely good enough to get around. In any event, I do not expect it to run that long (fingers crossed and knocking on wood). Traci: Hey. . .I’m working muy hard on mi espanol! I don’t know what Mateo is talking about! So what that I say things in VERY broken sentences and don’t always make my subjects and verbs agree and sometimes mix up my el and la with words. I actually thought I was doing pretty good until I just read that comment from Matt. My bubble has burst!

Dinner tonight – pasta, which the ninos have no taste for. So, we loaded them up on as many side items as we could find to their liking. Andres doesn’t seem to like a lot of meats. He will eat chicken, but doesn’t seem to like red meats or fish. He is supposed to be on a protein heavy diet and so far that is proving difficult.

That’s pretty much it from Cartagena. It was fun but I think we are all kind of glad to be heading back to Bogota. It isn’t really that we enjoy Bogota that much, but leaving Cartagena represents crossing one more hurdle before we can come home. Happy birthday to my Grandma Hazel – I know it is on 6/2, but you will probably read this tomorrow and there is no telling when we will get online.

We didn’t take too many pictures today as they are all starting to look the same. Hopefully, things will be a little more interesting when we get back to Bogota.

The 5 of us at out last dinner at the Hilton:

Matt, Luke & Maria at dinner

The guys in their cool Hawaiian shirts.

This is Maria in a full blown pout. I can't ever remember what this was about. She really hates it when you tell her "no." It can even be a nice "no," like "oh, no thanks" or she will pout and cry like she is being punished. I'm afraid this is something everyone is just going to have to get used to (particularly the grandparents with soft hearts).