Adopted John Erik Aarsheim’s two mothers meet for the first time at the opening of the Bergen Festival – news Vestland

Ana Jimenez thinks that this is almost what it’s like to attend his first day of school. It is the first time she has felt the rain in Bergen, far from her home town of Bogota in Colombia. She doesn’t have a rain jacket or an umbrella, but that doesn’t matter. Ana has missed so much. But now he is here. The zone will participate in the opening of the Bergen Games. The director thinks his story is fantastic. He is promoted as a representative of the diversity of the city’s inhabitants. Jhonatan comes down the catwalk at Festplassen. Then it hits Ana that he is exactly as she had imagined so many times. So tall and handsome and intelligent he is, she thinks. No mother could have been prouder than Ana is of Jhonatan on this day. But Jhonatan has another mother at Festplassen. Mother Ana and brother Juan at the opening of the Festspillene i Bergen Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / news Someone who has another name for him. She experienced his first day of school at Stadlandet over thirty years ago. Illegally adopted to Norway It has been three and a half years since John Erik Aarsheim had his life turned upside down. He had started looking for answers to where he came from. Answer who he was. What he found was more startling than he could have imagined. John Erik discovered that he was kidnapped in Colombia in the 80s before he was adopted to Norway. Here he grew up with a Norwegian family in Western Norway. The family was blissfully unaware of the three-year-old’s past. 32 years after the kidnapping, news was able to be there when he got to meet his biological family for the first time. The adopted boy found his biological family. The prodigal son came home to a city that was now foreign to him. But covid and lockdown meant that a short first meeting turned into a whole year in Colombia. There were intense days. Several hours of Spanish lessons every day so you can talk to your family. There is so much lost time to make up. 32 gifts for 32 years As he will celebrate his birthday for the first time in three decades on the date he was actually born, the family has 32 gifts for him. One for every year they have spent their birthday thinking about where he might be. They have packed a game that is suitable for a five-year-old. The twelve-year-old gets a Tetris game he could have had if he had been there in the 90s. It makes sense to John Erik that he has his roots here. He sees himself in his family and those around him. He appreciated that they are so lavish. Before this, he had thought that he was too Colombian for Norway. Now he understands that he may also be too Norwegian for Colombia. There is a lot to hang out with through gifts for half a lifetime. Growing up in the countryside in Norway, in Stadlandet, has helped shape him into who he actually is. First birthday in Colombia. 32 cakes for 32 birthdays that have not been celebrated before. Christmas in Colombia was as Norwegian as John Erik could get. I thought I was too Colombian for Norway. But I quickly thought that I was probably too Norwegian for Colombia. John Erik AarsheimMor Ana finally visited the son in the country where he grew up. Norwegian Christmas at the equator He has a family to reacquaint himself with. He sees himself in them. But it is a culture that is new to him. It is different from what he is used to. Sometimes he feels far from home. He is torn between two worlds, between Norway and Colombia. Between John Erik and Jonathan. When Christmas came, he set up a Norwegian celebration. With decorations and food from the adopted homeland in the north. The Colombian family got a taste of Norway. And of what Jhonatan had with him from growing up. A short, white hailstorm on Christmas Eve brought out the Christmas spirit in Westerners at the equator. And a sense of how important what he has brought with him from his home in the far west of Norway is to him. He is both John Erik and Jonathan. He must try to bring two worlds together. Both within itself, and purely concretely. A meeting between mothers They stand together outside on the deck, mother and son. The Westland coast whizzes by. For him, it is a well-known landscape. For her it is new and foreign. John Erik thinks that, in a sense, he is the one who has the parental role. He points and explains and answers all curious questions. The speedboat is on its way home. Home to City in Western Norway. Home to mother. For a meeting between mothers. He’s not that nervous. But he thinks that the Colombian mother must be insecure. In a yard outside by the fjord, the two mothers meet. The two women do not speak the same language, but meet each other with a hug. It is so far from South America to Stadlandet. But the two mothers seem to have a lot in common and. Both probably understand that the meeting is not only easy for the other. Ana from Colombia is grateful that Jhonatan has been allowed to grow up here. That he has been safe and taken care of, while she worried about him thousands of kilometers away. But at the same time it hurts to see the places he played. The school where he learned to read and write. The home where he was welcomed with love every day. John Erik noticed that for once it is the Latin Americans who are the silent ones. John Erik’s parents John Erik’s story is of course about many more people than just himself. When Karen and Gunnar Aarsheim picked up their adopted son in Colombia in 1988, they had no reason to suspect that he had a family looking for him. They have been as happy in him as in their biological children. And it is still like that. – We don’t think the situation is that difficult. John Erik searched for his origins. And it’s good he found it. The two are visiting the son in Bergen. While he has been on a turbulent journey, the adoptive parents are holding steady. – We now see him as our boy. No less than before. And our daughter sees him as her brother. In this sense, there is no change. The son sits by the parents. – I am very proud of you. They have handled this so well and focused on being my supporting players. John Erik believes that everything that has happened has caused him to redefine who he is. The conclusion is that he has two familiars. He has not lost his Norwegian. They have become closer to each other. Now he understands how much they mean to him being who he is. Mother Karen describes him as colorful among the gray people in the north-west. But he has her need for order and organization. Father, son and mother. Gunnar, John Erik and Karen. Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / news Heritage and environment The story of him who was first Jhonatan, then John Erik, and now both, is far from over. But it can perhaps move into a calmer phase. – You know that it is difficult to catch up with everything. Sometimes I think that we need to realize that a lot has been lost and that it is not possible to compensate for it. John Erik Aarsheim knows many adopted children can never get the answers he got. Many do not need to get them either. But John Erik feels whole in a new way. – I have changed so much in so many ways. I have gained a peace that I didn’t have before. Colombia has become a home. He’s there a lot. He has Colombian passport no. But the most important thing is that he gradually feels that the Colombians are starting to see him as one of them. Main figure at the Festspillene At the same time, he is both from the Northfjords and from Bergen. When he walks on the catwalk in the rain during the opening ceremony at the Festspillene, it’s like a first day at school, and for him. – It was a great experience for me. For the first time, all my parents were there. John Erik, Jhonatan, has managed to bring together two different lives, two different worlds. Was it then for the best that once upon a time he was estranged from his family? – For me personally, this is a closed story. I wouldn’t have changed it. But I see that there are many cases that could have changed everything. Like being there on the first day of school Ana Jiménez



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