What's In a Name?

It all started when I was pregnant with Jordan.  For months, while I was expecting, Jeff and I would email one another back and forth during the day with name ideas.  Names would drop off and others would be added; some would be starred as favorites and others would be made fun of.

Several months ago, while we were waiting for our referral, I resurrected this tradition.  We've had many, many email exchanges, actual conversations and considered lots of different names for our girl.

Before I share the name that we've decided on, let me explain more about our decision.

"Little Girl" ("LG" for short), as she was formerly known, obviously has an Ethiopian name that was given to her by her birth parent(s) and we want her to keep that, of course.  We actually LOVE her African name but we also know that there might be a time when she doesn't want to be so different.  (After all, there likely won't be any other Yenenesh's in her school).  And also because even though she's Ethiopian born, she's about to become a US citizen (both countries will forever be part of her heritage).  Because of this, it was our decision to give her an American first name and keep Yenenesh as her middle name.  As we've shared in the past, her Ethiopian name means, "good news" in Amharic (her native language).  With this in mind, one of the names that we were considering means "unexpected blessing" and we just didn't think that it got any better than that.

Soooo......

Halle Yenenesh Williams

it is.

We love it!

As a matter of a quick update, our Preliminary Hearing was held last Tuesday.  We haven't heard anything regarding the hearing and have been told that no news is good news in this regard  Typically, you would hear quickly if there was something missing or incorrect in your file so NOT hearing is a good thing.  It is our understanding that our file is lacking the final document from MOWCYA (Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs) and once that letter is received, we will be given a court date.  Our caseworker seems to think that we will get that call THIS week.  A fellow adoptive family with our agency (who actually lives nearby) whose PH was the same day as ours, got their call last Friday and flew out yesterday (Monday); talk about traveling on short notice!!!  We are preparing ourselves for an equally short notice and I began gathering and pre-packing today just in case......will keep you posted.