It's all in the NAME

Well, recently Scott and I have been feeling bad about changing Gabre's name. Her birth mother gave her the name Banchigize. At first we could not even say her name and felt this was not the best name for a child in the US school system. We didn't think twice about changing it to Gabre because Gabre is an Ethiopian name. The caretakers at her orphanage called her Bunchin. I primarily call her Bunchin and so does Scott.
This weekend we had a talk about keeping her name Banchigize because it was the name given to her at birth, plus we now find it to be a really beautiful name. We are thinking about naming her Banchigize Gabre Mira Reeves. We would still call her Gabre as a child and then she can decide as a young adult what name she wants to go by. I have never been a person who really likes the 3+ name thing, but what are you going to do.
Has anyone else struggled with this????

what Ethiopia Taught me.......

AIDS, STARVATION, CHILD SOLDIERS, GENOCIDES, ORPHANS....
*These are the IMAGES that come to mind when I think of AFRICA
*HOW can I Help?
*HOW can I make a DIFFERENCE
*I THINK....... I am NEEDED HERE....
*They have so little....AND I have so MUCH
*often there is a LEVEL of SUFFERING here that is UNIMAGINABLE
*But it is hard to reconcile the CHALLENGES many Africans FACE
*with the JOY I see in The People
*but the IMAGES spilling out of my T.V. showed ONLY MISERY and I was FOOLED
*I BOUGHT into the LIE....that CIRCUMSTANCES defines HAPPINESS
*in Places where Despair SHOULD thrive....I found adults DANCING and SINGING
CHILDREN playing soccer with a ball TIED of TRASH
*RELATIONSHIPS and FAITH provide JOY
*my NEW REALITY....my JOY should have NO regards for my CIRCUMSTANCES

I want what I have learned to trickle down from my head to my HEART

I NO longer want to NEED the "NEXT THING" to have JOY

Africa NEEDS our EFFORTS and PARTNERSHIP

Because it is Africa that has TAUGHT me that POSSESSIONS in my Hands.....
will NEVER be as VALUABLE as PEACE in my HEART

for ME......

I NEED AFRICA MORE THAN AFRICA NEEDS ME

CLICK HERE to learn more.

Happy 2009!

Well, new year another adoption.....just a joke. We are hoping to start another adoption from Ethiopia in this new year. The when is still unknown. What we do know is that we love our baby girl from Ethiopia and would love another. I know this year will bring lots of fun times as Gabre grows. She will get more teeth, learn to talk, start to run, loose the bottle, have her 2nd birthday and much much more. We are so looking forward to 2009!