We picked a name!

So, today, we were driving to Myrtle Beach to do a little vacationing with the fam, and we had lots of time to just relax and talk. In all our ramblings, we talked again about our son's name. This topic is a tricky one, b/c we kind of want to be respectful and just let the kid keep his birth name, since everthing else in his world is changing. But then again we don't want to have a kid whose name is botched his whole life (oh, kinda like wynne and radames!).

Anyway, the way names work in Ethiopia is that the kid's first name is his chosen name and the last name is the father's first name. (Every name is about honor and family tradition and connection back to the dad and then mom.) So, when we leave Ethiopia, the kid will legally be Whatever Radames. Kinda funny, huh? We can make him be named whatever we want when we legally re-adopt him here, though, which we'll have to do.

Anyway, we've been struggling to figure out a given name that is somehow connected back to Ethiopia and that will have cultural meaning to his birth. But we do want something that sounds good with Tyree-Rodriguez, since that's already messed up enough as it is. Radames likes Miles (as in Davis), which i think is kinda cool, b/c it's also connected back to how many miles we'll have to travel to find him. :) He also likes Langston (as in Hughes) and Luca (don't ask!), Akeem (okay, i just can't be the mother of a kid named akeem!), Alexander (because he thinks it's powerful). I've been in the camp of something crusty and white like Holden or Devan. It was looking like it'd be Miles, because at least we can agree to that one.

So I was on YouTube watching more Addis Ababa videos and it totally came to me! It's the perfect name. I said it out loud and Radames said it was perfect, too. It's done. It's a great name. It's American and easy to pronounce but it's perfectly connected back to Ethiopia. I can't wait to share it, and it's meaning, but i won't spill the beans yet...in case some of you don't like it. We don't want to hear about it. :)

This is major. Finally having a name makes him feel more real. He's just been a bunch of paperwork so far, so finally having a name helps us wrap our heads around the fact we'll actually have another child soon. Yipee!