"What's In a Name?

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Did I ever tell you that I majored in English Education? I should mention here, that I probably shouldn't have. I still can't use a comma properly (I make my engineering husband, "Mr. Numbers" proofread my stuff...clearly not the blog, but other things...that's how bad I am). Well, I took a Shakespeare class, like any other self-respecting English major. So, in thinking about the name of our daughter, this above 'Romeo and Juliet' quote keeps coming back to me. I really think that Juliet was saying that the substance of someone matters, not what they are called. It's easy to agree with her logic. She was blind with young love. She didn't care what his name was, she loved him for who he was. Okay, let me bring the Shakespeare lesson back to the name of our daughter. 

Months before we knew if we would be referred a boy or a girl, we picked names like so many other expectant parents. We had many reasons for choosing a "new" name for out child and we knew we would use his/her birth name as a middle name. We were positive of our decision. We excitedly announced this to family and friends. Ever since February 11th, they have referred to our daughter by the name we chose. Well, this whole naming business just seemed so abstract before traveling to Ethiopia and meeting our daughter in person. It hit us so clearly that she has a history, her birth name has a beautiful meaning, she responds to her birth name, her birth name is full of beauty, her birth name was chosen out of pure love and adoration, she is going to lose her birth country, culture and everything familiar to her when we bring her to her new home to live with us. We discussed all of these things at length on our way back home from our court trip. Our decision was clear pretty early on, but nothing in this process has been without chaos, so I think the hardest part was pulling the rug out from our friends and family again. Well, friends and family...consider the rug pulled. We are keeping her birth name as her first name and will use the name we chose as her middle name, and no...it isn't Cupcake ;). Cupcake's birth name has a pretty cute nickname when you shorten it up, and we think it is kind of cute that it rhymes with her oldest cousin's first name (thankfully, she gave us her blessing over this...such a kind-hearted 7 year old). Everyone has hung in on this crazy journey so far, and after having told our family of our decision over the long weekend, and it going over fairly well, we feel confident that everyone will adjust. 

Thanks for all of your love and support in this process. It is impossible to measure what it has meant to us. We couldn't have come this far without you all! Leaving in just over a week to go pick her up! Woooo hooooo! (Still.must.buy.diapers.)