It's Been A Week

It's been a week since we've been home and days since I've blogged.  Part of it is that I can't do it the way I did in China - with decent writing and lots of interesting photos.

We've landed in the "real world" where we are jet-lagged.  We have a new son who gets up at 3 a.m. each morning.  We have three other children who still have to eat, have clean clothes, be home schooled, be driven to soccer practice and games five days a week -- well, you get the picture.  There's no more Chinese guide, no driver, no fine Chinese restaurants for every meal, no hotel maid, no laundry service.  We're tired with a capital "T."

So for right now, I'll do what I always do when I don't have time to write an interesting blog post.  I'll link to someone else's work. 

Her (Chinese) Name tells the story of two Chinese girls adopted into the same family and their very different responses to their Chinese names.  What's really interesting to me is that the girls' feelings about their Chinese names changed over time.

Wen Xin is still going by Wen Xin and as we introduce him as Wen Xin to more and more friends and family, I find myself wondering if he will go by his Chinese name forever.  And since we put Joseph Michael on his adoption documents I'm wondering what will be involved to include Wenxin (it's actually one name made up of two Chinese characters) as part of his legal name. 

And how do I keep people from nicknaming him "Wen" because right now we already have "Joseph" and "Joseph Michael" and "Wenxin" and "Xin Xin" (his Chinese nickname) -- and I really don't want to add any more names to the mix?

People have strong opinions about his name.  Some people don't understand why we didn't include Wenxin on his legal documents from the get go.  And some people don't understand why we aren't just insisting that he use his American name.  I actually overheard a family member tell Katherine that she should just go ahead and start calling him Joseph whether he liked it or not.

Right now, our best Mama and Baba wisdom says that this is not the biggest issue we're facing.  We think that as he settles in to his new life in America, he'll be the best judge of what he should be called.  So much has changed in his life in such a short time.  We're not going to insist on changing his name.