And the name is..................................(e-drum roll)

Norah Xia Hua Keeping Brown

We know, it's a lot for a little baby! This was the shortest we could get it though. Anyone who's looked on sites for baby names knows that you find many descriptions of the meaning of names. Here's the one we liked:

Gender: Female
Ethnic Origin: Latin (or Celtic or Hebrew)
Meaning: Honour/Light
Numerology (not really sure what this has to do with the name, but it's interesting):
Expression Number 11: People with this name tend to be idealistic, highly imaginative, intuitive, and spiritual. They seek after spiritual truth and often find it. They tend to be visionary and may inspire others. If they fail to develop their potential, they may become dreamers, or misuse power.

So, to interpret her name fully: Honour Summer Flower Keeping Brown. And, of course, she will develop her potential, so no worries about her trying to take over the world with an evil plot!

More Info on our little "Summer Flower"

We received the official documentation on Jin Xia Hua today. It contains results of medical tests and some information on her name, personality, living habits, etc.

Her surname, Jin, is used in memory of Jintian Town, the site of the uprising of the Taiping Rebellion. All children in the Guiping Social Welfare Institute (SWI) have this common surname. Xia means she was born in the summer and Hua means flower. The document says that "the name Xia Hua conveys our sincere wishes that she would be as fragrant and beautiful as a summer flower." Pretty poetic.

We were able to solve one mystery regarding the matching process. Xia Hua is described as tending to act "pettishly" (definition of pettish = easily irritated or annoyed). Hmm....I wonder who that sounds like? Let's just say that the belief that the baby is matched according to the father has been confirmed for us! One definition of pettish I found online used the sentence, "an ill-natured disagreeable old man." Can't wait to see how that description might apply to a baby. I think we'll stick with the summer flower description - oh and she's also supposed to be optimistic - that sounds nice. She apparently also loves outdoor activities - I guess she'll enjoy running outside with us then...although, the outdoor experience in Southern China might be slightly different than that here in Canada!

Referral Day has finally arrived!

Here is our baby, Jin Xia Hua! She was born on June 18, 2005. We're not sure how old she was when the pictures were taken. She is currently living in Guiping Social Welfare Institute in Guangxi Province. This province is in southern China and borders Vietnam. There is a link on the right side of the page that provides some information about Guangxi.

Some facts we were given about Xia Hua are that she is active, a deep sleeper (here's hoping that stays true!), can hold her head up when on her tummy, can tear paper, locates sounds, laughs, and can distinguish acquaintances from strangers. On November 2, she was 25 inches long and weighed about 13.5 pounds.

We still have to determine what we will name her. We will keep Xia Hua (Jin is like a last name; often the babies from the same orphanage share this name), but her first name and last name are still to be decided. We did notice that the pictures were labeled Brown. Perhaps our agency is trying to give us a hint on the last name...

Doug losing it while waiting for our referral

Here's a picture of Doug after the long wait has finally gotten to him!

Events leading to The Big Event

February, 2004: Attended an information session by Children's Bridge and decided to go with this agency and to adopt from China.
May 14, 2004: Went to Las Vegas with six of our friends and got married (a requirement for adoption from China). After 11 years together, we thought we'd risk it and take the plunge!
June, 2004: Began our homestudy.
January, 2005: Our homestudy was sent to the Ministry of Children and Youth Services and we waited for approval.
March, 2005: Our homestudy was approved by the Ministry on March 4. Our complete dossier was sent to China on March 23 and we became part of Children's Bridge Group 229.
April 15, 2005: Our file was officially logged in at the China Center for Adoption Affairs.