So what is in a name?

So, first off, we are sitting a little easier today, than yesterday at this time.  We had our home study yesterday afternoon, and everything went really well.  The lady that came was wonderful and she hopes to have our home study written by the end of the week.  She was here about 3 hours, and talked with us both together and both separately.  We had told the kids that she might want to ask them a few questions.  When Bubba got home from school, he asked Russie, "Daddy is that lady going to ask me anything," Russie said "she probably will, would that be okay, he said, "yeah I guess it would, but what if she asks me to give her a kiss?"  We got a chuckle out of it, and she did in fact ask him for a kiss, his eyes got so big when she said that, he didn't know what to say !  If you want to hear a funny story about Laynie that happened during the home study, you will have to make sure you to ask me about it, it was a good one !  Thanks for all your prayers through this home study process, we felt them !

So, as for a name?  We are going back and forth with what the girls names will be here in America.  Do we keep their Russian names? Do we give them a new American name?  Choices..choices...choices....At first, we really wanted them to keep their names, so they would always have a part of their culture and remember where they came from.  But on the same token, they are embarking on a new, life-changing journey and gaining a more "American" name might be a great change as well.  We did ask the girls before they left, what they would prefer and they said they liked their Russian names if we wanted to keep them, but they would be fine with us choosing a name as well.  In the Ukraine, no one has a middle name, so we knew we atleast had to find a middle name for each of them. So, here are our thoughts thus far...Vika did voice that she really liked her name, so we were thinking about keeping it, her full name is Viktoria, which does in fact fit into our American names.  We are thinking about giving her the middle name Love, making her name Viktoria Love.  Love is actually a name I considered giving Laynie for a middle name. My Grandmother's maiden name was Love and always thought it would make a really neat middle name for that reason and of course, the meaning of Love is quite obvious as well.   As for Nastya, I am having a little harder time deciding. Her given name is Anastasia.  In the Ukraine, this is a really popular name for girls, with the majority of the girls even within the orphanage having this name.  Nastya is the Russian pronunciation for  Anastasia.  So in a lot of cases, the girls are called by their last name in the orphanage because there are so many "Nastyas"  So here is what we were thinking for her...the name Nastya is hard to pronounce correctly  and stands out in our culture, so were thinking of keeping her given name Anastasia, and giving her the middle name Lee, which happens to be my middle name, my Mom's middle name, and Lori's ( my mother-in-law's) middle name as well.  Making her name Anastasia Lee, but then calling her Annlee, which is a combination of Ann ( from Anastasia ) and Lee.  Other variations could be; Annalee or Anslee.  We already have an Ana in the family or that would probably be the obvious choice for the name.  In the Ukrainian culture, they have designated days of the year to celebrate your name.  For Example, they do have one day a year set aside as "Anastasia Day"  and a day set aside as "Viktoria Day" This is a special day for them in their country, so by keeping both their given Ukrainian names, we will be able to still allow them to celebrate that tradition. So, I guess we will continue to think about this name game, but I do think it is an important part of the puzzle..we welcome your thoughts about this, and we will keep you posted as to what we decide...