It is my great pleasure to introduce to you...

Nicholas Arthur Thayer Kjersten

• In Colombia it is custom for everyone to have 2 last names: father´s and mother´s maiden, so that is what his new birth certificate will read.

• Sentencia has been signed, but in true Thayer fashion, there were, of course, some glitches. When we got to the office, the defender of Minors had not signed the paperwork so we had to wait, hoping she would come down to sign. I´m not sure what our lawyer did, but after an hour, he worked his magic and we left with signed paperwork.

• Then off to North Bogota to get Nicholas´new birth certificate. We had to travel to the office where Nicholas was registered originally, about an hours´drive across the city. Bogota is HUGE --between 8 and 9 million people and I´m told that to go completely across the city it can take as much as 2 hours --no interstates like MPLS/St Paul.

• The ride was fun as I was able to see the original city. It looks like what you would see in the movies of a really old European city with all of the buildings touching and really narrow streets separating it into blocks. Our driver when we were site seeing said that many of the buildings are hundreds of years old. The architecture is just amazing.

• Anyway, we got to the registar´s office where in true Thayer fashion we, of course, had issues. The secretary couldn´t get the computer to place my maiden name in the right location as it is not listed on my passport. Finally we had to do it the old fashioned way. It was good that this took a while as the man who needs to sign the new birth certificate was out of the office for a meeting. Unfortunately, he did not return and we were unable to figure out if he would be back at all, so we left. We´ll have to return tomorrow AM, hoping he will have signed the new document. Keep your fingers crossed.

• Unfortunately, this little delay has put the kabosh on our Tuesday return. We needed to have Nicholas´VISA application (passport is required) in by Thursday PM so that we could get it on Monday. It takes 24 hours for approval from Washington, and since Friday is Colombian Independence Day with everything closed, we have to wait. We couldn´t get his passport today because we didn´t have his new birth certificate. And so the snowball goes down the hill.

• Tomorrow will be a busy day as we run back to the north side to get the birth certificate, visit the embassy doctor and get the passport.

• I have to say that I am really tired of the glitches. It doesn´t seem like any of this process has gone smoothly. I think it´s just Satan´s way of trying to discourage us. And honestly, it often works. I still hear God´s quiet voice saying, "Do you trust me?" though. We wanted God to be glorified through our adoption process. If we didn´t have to trust Him, if we could do it all on our own, would He get the credit? Now if only I could remember that during the frustrating times of waiting...

• Please keep praying for us. Not only do I have to wait longer to see the boys (I am REALLY homesick), but we have the added expense of changing my ticket and longer hotel stay. We are also uncertain of the cost of Nicholas´ticket. There have had several unexpected expenses (Dr visit, prescriptions, extra taxi rides while Nicholas was back at FANA, etc.) along the way and this is really starting to hurt. None of us expected this to take the full 6 weeks and the Thayer household is starting to get more than frustrated, so please pray that we can be patient a little bit longer. Also pray that we all remember that this is part of God´s plan and that He is in control.

• Thank you for your suport and prayers. We do know that you are faithfully lifting us up in prayer.

We did have some fun today, so here are some pics to lighten the mood :).

Nicko and Bryan have become quite the little buds. Off to one of the many neighborhood parks....
OOOOH I love to swing!!!!

Paqui and Simone show the boys how it´s done...

Look at that smile. How can it not make you happy????