Introducing Colin Lee Yunchun Smith

(First, let me apologize up front. There will not be any pictures to join this posting. While we are anxious to share with you our beautiful son, we are keenly aware that the Chinese people are a proud people, and it has been requested through our agency that we respect the culture and refrain from publicizing pictures at this time)

Part of the documentation we received with the referral was the name that was given our little boy when he was found. His name is Nan Yunchun. He was found on July 25th, and it was estimated that he was two days old when he was found, so his date of birth is July 23rd, 2008. How cool is it that he'll get to share a birthday with his Mom! All indications is that he is a healthy little boy, praise God!

We did some research into his name. Keeping in mind that in the Chinese culture, the surname name is listed first, and the given is listed second. So, if his name were American-ized, it would be Yunchun Nan. We've read that orphaned children are often left without a name and it's up to the orphanage to name the child. So the names often reflect a location or conditions under which the child was found. We learned that Yunchun can be literally translated to mean "Cloudy Spring," and Nan is a common family name (kind of like Smith) in the province where he was found and is currently living.

From early on in the process, we have been toying with names. Honestly, we had narrowed our list down to two girls names, because we had assumed we would be adopting a little girl from China when we began this journey. When we learned we were having a boy, we began a mad scramble to come up with a boys name. This was complicated by several factors - wanting to pick a name that worked well with his surname, not wanting to pick a name of a current of former student of Anita's, not wanting to step on the toes of the several friends of our who are expecting in the next few months, not wanting to select a name that would invoke teasing or ridicule as he grew up, etc. Not an easy task as you might imagine. Where most couples have months to select a name, we had days. But it was a task that became quite comical as we worked out name after name.

So, after a few hours of hashing things out, we found that we really liked the name Colin, which one website defined as "Of A Triumphant People." We had agreed all along that we would keep his surname as his middle name, and Colin Yunchun had a certain flow to it. We added the Lee because it was my middle name (as well as my father's) and was also the first name of Anita's Grandmother who had passed in 2008. Therefore, we decided that Colin Lee Yunchun Smith would be an appropriate name for our little boy.

So, ladies and gentlemen, we are anxiously awaiting the delivery (or picking-up as the case may be) of our son, Colin Lee Yunchun Smith!