Update & Names!

So much has happened in the last few weeks so it's time to update the details...

As I blogged about earlier, we receive the official referral for the kids on Feb. 4th and their original pictures when they had entered the orphanage. At the same time we received measurements, which were interesting to say the least. Our three year old boy is such a little guy and will have to hold his own to stand up to his little sister. According to their paperwork, she was 21 lbs. at 3 months (yes, you read it right) and her "big" brother was 26 lbs. at three years of age! We've heard a lot of comments about malnutrition causing the kids to be very small until they come home, but what gives with the baby?? We think her age is probably off by a couple of months. Right now, according to her paperwork, she's 8 months, we think she's probably closer to 10 months.

We got new pics of the kids that were taken two weeks ago, as well as new measurements (we're still waiting for new weights) and it looks like the kids are doing well overall. They received our gifts and we got pictures of them holding the gifts and wearing their new clothes. Every picture of our little girl is either with a straight face or crying - especially in the new clothes, which are pink... perhaps she doesn't like pink. Either way, it melts my mommy-heart to see her that way and gives me a little foretaste of what's to come. I told TrueDad that I think we'll get really familiar with that whole pouting/crying look. Funny how, more than anything, it just makes me laugh when I hear kids cry - I guess cuz they're just so darn cute. (Okay, I'm not sadistic - I don't cry when they have a really good reason to cry, like they've fallen and hurt themselves... I just love seeing the things that are such a big deal to little ones -and it's so fun to make it better. I wonder if this is how God sees us when we throw our little tantrums. Somehow, I don't think we're nearly as cute... Thank you God, for having so much patience!)

The most amazing thing was realizing, as I looked at a picture of the little boy that he was holding in his lap the photo album that we sent him showing the picture of TrueDad & myself! I have to admit that when I saw that I just broke down crying realizing that it was for real. We are now connected with Ethiopia and the kids are connected with us - they are in the process of becoming Truekids! I desperately wish that I could post pictures, but it's not allowed nor are we allowed to give out their names. I can however, tell you about their new names...

In Ethiopia, a name is an important thing - given out with real meaning behind each name. We wanted to find a balance of maintaining this connection and preparing them for their lives in the U.S. with names they could be proud of: ones that reflect both their heritage and their new life. While this seemed like a daunting task, we've been blessed to experience God's direction clearly in the process, further signifying that these children were chosen for us.

The little boy's name, "D" means "the kind one." in Ethiopia. I blogged earlier about how when we were trying to decide if we really were supposed to pursue the adoption, the main passage of Scripture that God lead me right to is Luke 12:22-34. My favorite verse I've been holding on to in that passage is v. 32 - "Do not be afraid little flock, for Your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom." One day, I went looking for any verses in the concordance relating to that verse, in particular. The first one I looked up was Eph. 1:5,9 "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will," and "He made know to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him." I'm so thankful that God's intention to bring us into His family was designed with kindness which is reflected in the name of our soon-to-be newly adopted son.

We decided to keep his birth name as his middle name and give him a new first name that also has special meaning, but is perhaps a little simpler for all of us who are language-challenged to pronounce. C.J. has always wanted a little brother, so we went for the African name, Kadin, which means "beloved companion." We are confident that he will live up to his name and be a "true & kind beloved companion!" - will that mean never a moment of sibling fighting??? Ahhhh... one can dream :).

When C.J. was born, we knew that we wanted to call him Ellie if he was a girl, but would have chosen a longer name to shorten to Ellie. Alas, it was not to be and while we were quite thrilled with our new boy, (yes, son, we still are :)) we were more than a little sad to never use the name. (Silly us, we thought we'd never have more kids... or was that our formerly practical selves trying to will some good sense into our what-could-be-viewed-as not-so-practical current versions?) So when we learned that one of our new children would be a girl, TrueDad was adamant that she be called Ellie. As he hasn't been too adamant about the details in this process, I was all too happy to go along with him. We did want to keep her Ethiopian heritage in there somewhere and so were trying to figure out how to best do that.

We learned that her given name, "W" meant "golden one." Her name doesn't translate easily into English and could cause other problems as well in the translation but we wanted to honor her given meaning in some way so we decided that we would look for a name that meant something close, like "valuable" or "light." I began to look down a rather extensive list of Ethiopian names, looking at the meaning column versus the name column. I found nothing meaning "valuable" and only one meaning "light." I think I just about fell over when I saw what it was... "Eleni." What a gift to see how God put all that together from almost 14 years ago, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart," Jeremiah 1:5

Now for the last name... in Ethiopia, the children take their father's first name as their last name. So all the children in the family with the same father have the same last name, but different from their mother's last name. When God really planted the adoption seed, I was in church listening to our pastor teach on the first chapter of Isaiah and verse 17 completely leapt off the page and into my heart, especially, "Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." I thought... this is what our church should be about. It was about that time that our pastor and his wife took in two little bi-racial boys who needed a home within their family - literally overnight. As TrueDad & I decided to go forward in our pursuit of adoption, we've always had the feeling that it would represent our church somehow or be linked in some way. Well... it turns out that the kids last name, "G" translates as "grace." Oh, did I forget to tell you that the name of our church is, "Grace?"

Their names now have a world of meaning to us.

We've also decided to incorporate their last name into Eleni's full name, so she'll be called "Eleni Grace True" - Ellie for short.

Our little 3 year old will be "Kadin 'D' True."

So now our dossier is on a plane on its ways to Ethiopia. After it's translated then we normally would be in line for a court date, however there's a slight issues going on... I'll explain in my next post cuz we need prayer!

Holding on to God and loving the ride!

TrueMom