What's in a Name?

A name is such a special thing.  We are called by it our entire lives.  God knows us, by name!  A name is special and even if we have people with our "same name" we know that we are special because of our name and our family.  We learned yesterday that we have been pronouncing Aiyu's name incorrectly.  We thought it was "eye-ya".  Turns out, Aiyu is pronounced "eye-you".  It means "beautiful jade".  Cool, huh?!  I love it!  We have chosen to rename her Joylee Aiyu Wells once we have her home.  Joylee is a combination of Joy, in honor of my late mother.  Lee, is Kristine's middle name as well as her mother's middle name.  We will keep Aiyu as her middle name in honor of her heritage.  Now, if you know me, you know that I love nicknames.  I have been calling Bethany "Beamer" and "Beam" since before she was born.  These special "Daddy only" names are important to me and Bethany has grown up being called Bethany, Beamer or Beam by her daddy.  I have been wondering about a nickname for Joylee Aiyu.  After learning about her name meaning "beautiful jade" I'm thinking about my special "Daddy only" nickname for her being "Jade".  It's a node to the meaning of her birth name.  I'll see if that fits her and let you know.

Painting Day

After 2 coats of primer to cover up the dark blue of one wall, Bethany and I were finally ready to pick out paint for Joylee's room. We had in mind two shades of pink and Bethany was a huge help in deciding the shades. I did more edging than I ever want to do again (but probably will) and Bethany filled the wall in with a lovely raspberry shade of pink. I took pictures so ignore the closet with all the junk stuffed into it. It was just to show the two different walls. (When I can get the pic to upload, I will.)
The aqua colored wall is going to be the lighter shade of pink that is smeared in a patch. I was trying it out to see if we would need to prime this one too. I think we might be able to get away with just a double coat of paint.
So we have one brown wall, one white and one of two pink walls done.
On our way to having a baby room!
I will admit, though, that it was a little sentimental covering up Bethany's old walls. I had to take a moment and hug Bethany and tell her she would always be my baby. She was tolerant and let me snuggle her for almost half a minute! What a sweet girl.

Aiyu in Action

We were blessed to not only receive several pictures of Aiyu but we also received a video of her!
It's great - enjoy!

Think Pink!

Well, we finally made a decision about the room colors. We had been seesawing about whether to paint the room (Bethany is for, the parentals are against) or not. We had painted it for Bethany's 9th birthday in dark brown, aqua, white and turquoise. Needless to say, painting over dark colors can be a challenge so we were not really excited about it. But Bethany was all for pink.
So Bethany and I went to the fabric store to get ideas from the fleece patterns and soon discovered a shocking lack of turquoise and brown.  Guess what, though! We saw the cutest brown and pink block pattern with butterflies on it and were inspired!
A compromise was reached keeping the brown and white walls and turning the blue walls two shades of pink. So far we have the turquoise wall primed with two coats and nothing on the aqua one yet. Do you think a dark pink color will cover the wall okay without a lot of show through? Never painted over a dark color before. This will be a new experience for me.
I'll post a picture when it is done.
Here's hoping...

Kristine

Aiyu's parents

I had hoped to add a lighthearted post about some of the cool events from the early days of the process.
But my heart is breaking for Aiyu's parents right now.
She is coming up on her first birthday and, even though the authorities can't know the exact date she was born, her birth mom and dad do. China chose June 28th as a very likely date of birth based on her condition, size, etc. She was 2-3 months premature so I can only imagine the shock her mom had when she realized her baby was coming that early! But God preserved her life and we are so grateful. Whether Aiyu's mom grieved at giving her up or not, whether it was a difficult choice or a casual one, whether it was made in fear or love, we know she will be thinking of her baby on her birthday. I pray that God uses this time to reach out to both the mom and dad. If they do not know Him now, we pray they soon will. And that He gives them the peace that passes all our human understanding.

Kristine

It's on!

After nearly three years of praying, paperwork and patience, we have been matched with a beautiful little girl in China! Praise the Lord! So many people have asked about our adoption journey and where we are in the process that we decided to start a designated blog. We will use this blog to journal about our experience, ask for prayer requests, update on progress and solicit donations to help bring Joylee Aiyu home.