Three Days!

"Three days, and I'm outta here," Nathan says!

Today we had our last visit with Nathan until he gets out of the orphanage on Wednesday. He was in an awesome mood and the weather was very nice so we got to take him out on a walk again. He's such a character! I think he wants to be the family photographer...he always goes right for the camera:0)

After hugs and kisses, he went back to his groupa and we went to pick up his meds and food he is used to eating since the next few days will be busy. Monday, we get his adoption certificate. Tuesday is running around for more paperwork and buying his plane ticket back to the capital. We get to pick him up on Wednesday after lunch. Stay tuned for gotcha day pics. I just can't wait!!!! So close!

Eight Days....

Eight days until Nathan leaves the orphanage! We were able to visit him again today. The 5 days since our last visit seemed like an eternity. The director gave us permission today to come again on Saturday:-) Hooray!

They are trying something new with his legs and back to build strength in his muscles. You can see the red weights they made for him in most of the pictures. Today the fun game was cars with Dad:-)

Around Town

We've seen lots of cool things on our daily walks around town. There are so many statues. Here's the first one. Have no idea who he is, but then, where's the excitement in knowing everything, right!

A view of some of the beautiful buildings...

Another statue....

This guy looks like he belongs in the Lord of the Rings movies:-) I think this is a war memorial...

While we were taking pics of the cool Lord of the Rings guy, a big procession of people came by. There were lots of girls in formal wear waving flags.

This stone cross is the symbol of Nathan's birth city.

I think this is a memorial for Victory Day which they celebrate to commemorate their victory over Hitler's army in WW2.

Here's another statue....

And something we could tell was important, but we don't know what it is:-)

This is a war memorial with an eternal flame burning. You can see it in the bottom right corner of the picture.

This is a picture of a flower dislay and walkway leading up to a church.

This is the city's triumphal arch. It was built to commemorate a victory in 1812. It was distroyed during the communist era than was rebuilt in the 1990's.
This is an important general...
All in all, it's been fun seeing Nathan's birth city. We have lots more to explore and lots of questions to ask when we next see our translator!

Hanging Out

Yesterday afternoon we got to see Nathan for a little while. It finally stopped raining here, so we went on a walk.

Nathan loved being outside, but I think in his opinion, stopping to take pictures was highly overrated! He wanted to go near the bushes so he could touch everything. Pretty soon, he was trying to climb out and explore, so Dad carried him:0) By the look on Nathan's face, I think he was a little disappointed that we didn't let him crawl around...and he might have been thinking, "I can't believe they made me wear this hat!" LOL!

The hour passed very quickly, and after hugs and kisses we returned him to his groupa. We'll get to see him again in about a week. Gotcha day is projected to be June 8, although I hope it will be sooner:-) Until then, we have lots of time to walk around Nathan's birth city and explore. It is truely a beautiful place.

Today we walked around near the hotel and found this beautiful church.

From what we understand, the original church was destroyed during the era of communism. It appears that it has been rebuilt on part of the original foundation. That's what we think the plaque in front of it is about, but of course we can't read it...

Because no good thing should be experienced without an effort and because this city has a lot of hills, we had a few stairs to climb to get to the church:-) This picture was taken about half way up them... Of course, Randy wasn't even winded, but I wanted to lay down and take a nap when we got to the top! After we saw the church we went down another huge stair case. Did I mention that I love going DOWN stairs? At the bottom we found a statue of a man. Obviously he's important...I think he may be a famous writer. You can't see it really in this picture, but he's holding a quill pen. Then we happened upon this pretty fountain...

There are lots of nice wooded walkways. The trees and flower displays are in bloom and the air smells sweet from the perfume of the flowers. These are just some views of the stores and streets on the way back to our hotel.


There are so many more things to see and experience. I'll try to post more pics as the days go along. We are happy to have such an opportunity to see Nathan's birth city. We'll have such cool things to tell him about as he grows up!

Overjoyed!

The judge said yes! We are now the proud parents of Nathan Louis Jensen:-) Later we will get to go see our SON at the orphanage. We have a ten day wait, which is in accordance with the laws of Nathan's country, so we'll be hanging out, learning more about the culture and language, and counting the days until Gotcha Day!

About Me

We'd better start with the obvious...my mama says I'm definitely the cutest little kid on the planet!

But, I hate to tell you, I'm not really a morning guy, no matter how hard you try....

I'm pretty much sold on any toy with lights and music....

I can guarantee you that my dad will go get this if I throw it...works every time!

And, I love to save the best for last...check out what I can do!

Our Little Family

We got to see Nathan again for a little bit this morning. The facilitator needed a pic of the three of us for court, so here's our first "family picture." Hopefully in the next family photo op, we will be able to get Nathan to smile. This one was taken towards the end of our visit and he was getting tired and hungry. We learned today that he's got a one track mind once he sees the woman with the serving pans go by! Even a ride in the back of this little truck complete with sound effects from dad couldn't divert him:-)

Tomorrow we will be meeting with the agency's attorney to prepare for court, which will take place on May 24th and 25th. Please pray with us that everything will go smoothly during our hearing. We have been told that our ten day wait will definitely not be waived. Even though it will be hard to be away from home longer, this will be a great opportunity for us to pick up more of the language and to explore and learn more about Nathan's birth city and culture. We want to be able to tell him as much as we can as he gets older. Overall, we really like it here. The people we have met have been pleasant and helpful and our hotel is very close to the main city square. There are several beautiful old buildings and large flower displays. It has been rainy since we came, but we hope to be able post some pictures of the city soon:-)