Yes, indeedy, it IS Chinese!

Well, I was pleased to discover, today, the wonderful name I have chosen for our mystery dream child in the future is Chinese. The mom of one our kids at preschool looked it up in her Chinese dictionary. It has the same meaning. She said that the first character has been simplified some, but she could still find it and it did mean, "pledge, promise, covenant or contract". However, the pronunciaton is different than the Japanese. They pronounce it "chi". The second character is still written the same. And it also means "presence" and is even pronounced the same as in Japanese. She said she hasn't normally seen it used for names. But, she said because of the high population in China they are always looking for different, unique characters to be used for names. So, she thought I had picked a great name. Besides, she said that "chirin" sounds like a kind of mythical Chinese animal in ancient folklore somewhat similar to a dragon. So, it has a nice Chinese ring to it. Now, we just have to wait for a child to fit the name. I'm sure God has one in mind.

Getting to Know You...

One thing I forgot to mention in my last blog entry is that we actually have a couple of other reasons that we like the name "Kayleen". Some of you may know that my middle name is "Kaye". But we decided that it would be too many "e's" to spell Kayleen with an "e" after the "y". Also it would sound a little like Jay's sister's name, "Doreen". I asked the parent of one of our Chinese students at school if she could investigate whether or not those characters are still used in Chinese and if they have the same pronunciation as the Japanese ones. I'll let you know what I find out.

It's great that we have many Chinese students attending the school where I work. Also, one of the kids in the Pre-K class, which I help out with, was adopted from China. We also have friends through church and Jay's workplace who have adopted. So, we have lots of people to ask questions about the whole process. And just working with kids everyday is a great preparation for parenthood, I believe. I want to get to know and understand kids more and more. Not only will it help me be a better parent. I'm also hoping that it will enable me to be a better writer. For, you see, I am presently taking a writing course through the Institute of Children's Literature. The inspiration for this is my desire to write a story about my grandmother. But, that story could be another blog entry someday. Let's just say that I find my grandmother's life to be very inspiring. Where would we all be, today, if we didn't have our wonderful parents and grandparents? And there are so many kids in the world who are in need of a family. May we do our part to pass down a legacy of love and faith!

What's in a Name?

Although we probably won't hold our dream daughter for another couple of years, we've already been contemplating some names. One night, when I couldn't sleep I came up with a name I liked. The name is "Kayleen". Fortunately, when I shared it with Jay, he liked it, too. I once met a young woman named Kayleen. She belonged to a bible study group I attended in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She was one of the brightest, kindest Christians I ever met. I can never forget her radiant smile. So, I have a very positive image of the name, Kayleen. Besides that, I thought of some Chinese characters that would work really well with the name. In Japan, if you spelled it out in Roman letters it would look like this: Keirin. But, it would have the same pronunciation. The Chinese characters would look like this 契臨. The first character is used in a Japanese Christian vocabulary word, 契約 (keiyaku), which means "covenant", as in God's covenant with His people. The second character is also used in a Japanese Christian vocabulary, 臨材 (rinzai). Now, my Japanese friends, please help me in case I got the character for "zai" wrong. But, anyway, the meaning is "God's presence". So, "Kayleen" or "Keirin" would mean "God's promise or pledge to be present." I thought this would be such an awesome meaning for our future daughter's name. We could remind her, through her name, that God is always with her. Besides that, the English meaning is also cool. It means "pure girl". We pray that someday we'll have a little Kayleen. She may not even be born, yet. But, God knows. We're trusting in His almighty plan!

"Get Ready to Ramble!"

I just hope that we can keep up this spirited cheer even after nights turned into days and endless days of wailing. But, yes, we, too, have succumbed to the enticing, but crazy, desire to adopt an adorable little daughter from China. Kind of strange for me, as I speak Japanese as my second language, instead of Chinese. But, ever since high school I've told myself that someday I would adopt from China. Now I've somehow talked my beloved husband into this hilarious adventure of sleepless nights and unimaginable joy. I have warned him, as I am the one working at a preschool, that children are very noisy and messy. But, he, too, has been duped into believing that it will all be worth the craziness involved. I can only dream of what silliness will invade the Regan household with the addition of a little, messy bundle of joy. Kids are SO incredibly funny! Take the comment of one of our little 4 yr. olds in Pre-K. And I quote, "My grandmother is very old. And her skin is big and sloppy." This is the same boy who announced to me at lunch today, "I'm falling in love with you, Ms. Chandra."

We will keep you posted with all of our silly notions of adopting our little bundle of joy, which will cost at least double or triple of what Ms. Chandra's car did. We must believe in a hilarious God to trust that this will come about. It is sure great knowing that, Yes!, He does have a sense of humor and INDEED!, He does own the cattle on a thousand hills. So, we'll see how He's planning on rounding up about 20.000 of those cattle, uh, I mean U.S. dollars, to make this Regan family expand.