Hongyan's Room

Yes - she does have a name.  It is Hongyan and this is what we call her.  But yes, we are still working on her special "Family Day" name!

Her room is a work in progress.  We had painted the walls a pale yellow and put in a laminate wood floor a few years ago when I started using it as my exercise/zen room.  We knew it would eventually become a kid room and since we did not know if we would be matched with a boy or girl, thought yellow would be a gender-neutral color, bright and cheery to inspire me to engage in some physical activity.  Ha Ha!  Well, I thought it was gender-neutral.  Brandon said he never knew a dude with a yellow room but really, what color would you paint a room for a boy or girl?

The room was also decorated up a bit for Aunt Jenny, since it was "her room" when she would come to visit.  This is what it looks like now...remember, it is a work in progress!

So we've decided to keep the room yellow and work from there.  At this point, we are debating as to whether we want to go all out and buy the bed and bedding we really like, or do something simple now and wait until she's been home for a while and let her tell us what she would like.  She will be nearly three and a half when we bring her home and we are well aware that means she will come with her own personality and opinions.  I am leaning towards the "all out".  I want her to come home to a complete room that was done just for her, with love.

Anyone who knows us well knows were are not "theme-y" and don't want our girl to be molded in to a pretty pink princess!  Not that there's anything wrong with that...just not our thing.  This is the bedding set I am loving right now:

I also like this one very much - it is a modern butterfly and bird pattern in lilac and pink:

We already have a twin mattress set so were looking for a twin bed that is fairly low to the ground.  It would be silly to buy a toddler bed and mattress as she would only need it for a short time.  Those yellow walls are pretty bold and all of the trim is white, so I am in the process of painting some furniture we will re-purpose white as well.  She will have her own little cabinet with a t.v. (no cable!), DVD player and CD player and a bookcase for all the books her Daddy is collecting for her.

So that's where we are at with her room!  I was feeling a little hesitant to get this ball rolling, as if I would somehow jinx things.  But it has felt really good to start working on this project, since we aren't able to send her packages and ask for updates yet.  Working on her room has helped to make this all seem more real.

Something Sweet

This is a photo of a little girl named Madeline who is with the New Day Foster Home program in Beijing.  She has recently been matched with a family and is seeing a picture of her Mama for the first time.

One Silly Boy

[caption id="attachment_282" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Squid Monkey"][/caption]

Andrew, our 11 year old nephew, has become quite the short film maker.  He even has his own channel on youtube!  Check out the episodes in season one and stayed tuned for his Halloween special:

http://www.youtube.com/user/1sillyboy98

High five, Squid Monkey!  Your videos are awesome!

What's Next?

I have been asked by many over the past several days "what will come next?".   And, "when will you be able to go get her?".  To answer these and the many other questions we are often asked, I have created a new page called "The Process".  It outlines the process in detail and should answer any questions you may have about the next steps in our journey.  Of course you are always welcome to ask any other questions you may have!  I know I am usually in a constant state of confusion about all of this, so there is no such thing as a silly question!

For The Nanas

Nana Mary - Lao Lao is maternal grandmother.  It is pronounced L-ow (like "ow, that hurt" with an L) Lo

Nana Joyce - Nai Nai is paternal grandmother.  It is pronounced Nigh-ee Ni

Click the link to below to visit the web page where you can hear how to pronounce them - just hover your mouse over the words:

http://www.instantspeakchinese.com/

What's In A Name?

As some of you may know, we were not at all expecting to be matched with a little girl.  It may seem odd to those who know a little about Chinese adoption, but there are also lots of "waiting" boys -- precious boys who usually wait longer because most families want to adopt a little girl.  We indicated we would be open to either gender and since there are so many more families waiting to be matched with girls, we thought for sure our first little one would be a boy.  We had lots of boy names in mind but did not have a list of names we like for girls!

In China, children are named with the family surname, generational name and then first name, in that order.  The first name can represent a wish for their future or characteristic of the child.  Children in orphanages usually all have the same surname, which is one that represents the orphanage and/or area they live in.  The generational name is the same for all children brought in to the orphanage that year.  The first name is given by a worker or director of the orphanage.  Our girl was named Dang Hong Yan by her orphanage.  From what I can tell, Dang which would be the surname of all children from her orphanage, means party (as in political party?).  Hong is the generational name and means red, popular or bonus.  And Yan means swallow, as in bird.  The tricky part is the Chinese characters can mean different things, depending upon which characters they are with so I may be way off base.  So, I am going to ask a Chinese friend to translate the actual characters and combination for me.

In the past, adoptive families would give their Chinese children entirely new names.  It was thought best to fully "Americanize" them as soon as possible.  That view has changed and many adoptive parents and SW's now believe it's best to keep your child's culture alive so they have a link to their past.  Most parents now give their children new first names and keep their given name as their middle name.  But some parents feel that their name was given to them by an orphanage worker and has no significant meaning.  Others feel like this may be their only chance to name a child and want to use a family name or one or two that have special meaning to them.   Some try to incorporate the given name in to the first name.  And a few keep the name entirely intact and just add the family surname.

We have talked about this quite a bit and discussed it with family, friends and other adoptive parents.  We had to remind ourselves that this is Texas -- there is not much diversity in the area we live and the Asian families we do know all use "American" first names.  It might be different if we lived somewhere like San Francisco or Seattle, but it would be very frustrating to grow up in Texas with a name that no one can pronounce or spell.  So, we have decided to give our girl a new first name and keep her Chinese name as her middle name.  That way if she decides when she is older she wants to use her given name she can do so.

We have been asked by many what her name will be, but still have not decided on one.  We are fortunate to have pictures of our girl and know a little about her personality, which will make choosing her name easier.  We also need to pick a name that works well with her Chinese name.  We do have a list and have it narrowed down and hope for something to "click" soon, and when it does, we'll let you know!

A Funny Video

This guy cracks me up!  Brandon & I are working on our retorts to lunatic strangers. 

Here's the video on Comedy Central