Waiting For Ava

“But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, be patient! For it will surely take place. It will not be late by a single day.” Habakkuk 2:3

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Pinch me am I dreaming?

Well I have to say the last few days have been exhausting but incredible. We are so in love with our beautiful daughter. I can not believe its real!
We have been in contact with most of our group and it looks like most of our daughters are from the same Social Welfare Institute. Most have Jin Mei at the start of their names and then a different name at the end. The first name -Jin- is actually like our last names and the last name-Yuan- would be our first name. Jin Mei could be a name the SWI uses for all of their baby girls. I have heard from others that Jin means gold and Mei means beautiful. If you add Ava which means bird/birdlike we have a beautiful golden bird. Sounds good to me.
We had a comment on the blog telling us to rethink using Jin Mei as her middle names because of Jin actually being her chinese last name. They thought that it wouldn't make sense when she is older. I am not sure why this would matter but I actually quite like it and I like the fact that is connects her to her first home and her "sisters" from our travel group.
We did some shopping today but unfortunately Mike kept me away from the cute outfits and made me spend my money on practical things for our trip. Some how buying Pepto Bismol and rectal thermometers is not as fun as I had hoped.
We have had some people ask about what we need and where are we registered. We feel weird about asking for anything but understand this is what people do and it makes it easier for anyone wanting to buy Ava a gift. It is difficult though. Most people only have 9 months to prepare. Lucky us, we have had 3.5 years to stock up. LOL
We have almost everything we need. We have a couple of bigger items still to get, like a car seat and high chair as well as all of the little things that are not quite as much fun as cute little dresses.
I took some time to register online tonite at www.babiesrus.ca as well as a website we found when researching our diapering decision http://www.parentingbynature.com/.
Now that we have Ava we have all that could ask for. I can hardly wait to kiss those chubby cheeks!

4 Comments:

  • At 11:18 AM , Blogger Kathryn said...

    Hi Again,

    Your daughter is absolutely ADORABLE. Then again, ALL Guiping Girls are ADorable.

    Our daughter Emily is a Guiping Girl.
    Here Chinese name was
    Jin Xia Yan. There were six girls in our group from Guiping. ALL had JIN as their "last name".

    Were were told the following that Jin is from the Jintian Uprising.

    You can read about it HERE:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jintian_Uprising

    I wish you all the best on your journey!!!

    Take care
    Kathryn

     
  • At 3:52 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    We too have a Guiping son and his name is Jin De Li. He is still in the orphanage, we are waiting for our LOA (he has CL/CP). Maybe we'll be traveling about the same time!
    Jin is more significant than most Chinese last names as it refers to the name of Jintian town nearby and there is some history to it. Look up the website it is really cool stuff! We are keeping all of his Chinese name as his middle name "JinDeLi". His first Chinese name is Li and our name for him is Levi!
    Your daughter is cute, don't let anyone tell you to change her name! It will be beautiful and meaningful to her!
    best wishes to you!
    You can email me if you wish!
    Michele
    homecoordinator@yahoo.com

     
  • At 11:33 AM , Blogger Lee said...

    OK, rambling comment ahead, sorry.

    I do agree that the name is totally your choice, but Mei Yuan is really lovely too, and that is what they are likely calling her at the SWI. It can be comforting for a child to be called the same name at least for a while -- especially since she will be facing a lot of transitions when she's first put into your arms.

    When people say Jin Mei wouldn't make sense, it is because you are combining her last name and part of her first name to create a name. That's just not how the Chinese do names, but that's not to say you can't be creative. It would be similar to someone from another country adopting an American girl named MaryAnn Smith and renaming her Smith Mary (insert new last name).

    In our travel group, all the girls born in Jan up through early Feb shared the same first part of their name (Yuan, so I'm a little biased on your daughter's name). Our daughter was Yuan Di, another family's daughter was Yuan Na, while children born in March/April were named Bao -- Bao Bei, Bao Run, Bao Qin, etc. Many families kept those names as middle names, but others chose to keep the surname/last name Lian as a middle name or even a first name for thier children. Americans are so much more creative/non-traditional in our naming practices that it is hard to understand how very traditional the Chinese are in their naming practices.

    We kept Yuan Di as our daughter's middle name, and she is very proud (at age 3) to tell people that Yuan Di is her middle name, and that it was her name in China -- her Chinese name. Our feeling was that she didn't come to us with much, but she did have a name.

    Personally, I think it is important that our daughters know their Chinese names, and having Jin Mei as Ava's middle name might make that a bit confusing.

    Just my rambling (unsolicited) two cents...

     
  • At 3:14 PM , Blogger GaoyouMom said...

    Congratulations on your beautiful daughter!

    If I may add an additional comment on her name to add to what Lee said above ... it is customary in China for family and close friends to call a child by their personal name, doubled up, and SWI workers often follow this tradition. It's considered be be a term of endearment. So your child is likely being called "Yuan Yuan" by her care givers.

    Keeping "Jin Mei" keeps her surname, which she likely shares with all other children adopted from that SWI. And it keeps her generational name, which she likely shares with others who entered the SWI around the same time that she did, because SWI's often follow the Chinese custom of using generational names, where all siblings and paternal first cousins in a family are given the same generational name.

    Losing "Yuan" removes her own personal unique name, which may have been given to her by the SWI Director or other staff for a special reason.

    Please know that I am just trying to provide a little more information about Chinese names in general. I'm in no way being critical of your decision regarding your daughter's name and sincerely hope I do not come across that way in print. Jin Mei is lovely! And what you name your child is up to you and you alone, and you can choose to keep all of her Chinese name, some of it, or none of it. So don't let anyone rain on your parade.

    Congratulations again, and here's to speedy travel!

     

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