Nathanael Jay

I recently asked Aunt Judy to tell a little about Nate's adoption, here's what she wrote....

"Yes, indeed, this just happens to be the time of year when we love to remember back to when we received our adopted child 27 years ago this month... it was the day before Thanksgiving. We had gotten the good word toward the end of summer when the Martin family gathered for a little reunion in Chadron. I distinctly remember that the call came when Marj and Wayne were singing and playing at our piano, as they were staying with us at the time. Nate was the result of three long years of our trying to become parents... His Aunt Janell had put us in touch with a person she knew who had worked through Holt International Adoption Agency, which had been founded many years before, to assist with the Korean War orphans. Our very first gift for Nate was a car-seat given by the Martin family at the end of that reunion.

Nathanael Jay Rutter's Korean name was Kim Soo Dong (pronounced Chung) and in our prep for meeting him, we were told that men with beards might be stressful to him, as Korean men didn't normally have beards. So his new daddy shaved his beard off the morning that we left for Denver to meet Nate at the airport. His new mommy had never seen her husband with no beard, so she felt like she met two new guys that day. The funny part was that John, the person assigned to escort Nate from Korea, had a beard himself, and they got along fine!

Aunt Rachel met us in Denver (where she and Dennis, Josh and Zach were living at the time) and came along to take pictures. We cherish those and the memories of the first months with our son. Nate's first Korean word was "Oma" meaning mama and his first English word was "Wow!" He was 9 1/2 months old when he joined our family and we could tell right away that he was a very alert intelligent child. He amazed us with his use of big words at a very young age (I wrote some down somewhere, but the words "abandoned" and "coarse" come to my mind right now) Our Nathanael became an expert at just about everything when he began attending school as a kindergartner. All who know him realize that continues to this day! :) They would also agree that Nate has been totally Americanized... we are proud of all of his achievements."

Nate, Brett & Barry on the day Nate became an American citizen at the age of 5.