What is in the name?

Well we have had a few people who haven't known us very long ask about Shelby's name and why we chose it. I say that only the people who haven't known us very long, because I have been referring to a Shelby baby for as long as I can remember. I first heard the name Shelby years ago when I worked in daycare. I kept a beautiful smart little girl who definately had a mind of her own- her name was Shelby. I fell in love with the little girl and her name! Later the name became more popular after the release of Steel Magnolias. Also my favorite singer of all time, Reba McEntire, named her child Shelby. So I knew this name must be special!

Now for the freaky part...Eleven years ago I met my friend Shelly at work. Well since her name was so close to my favorite name ever, I just started calling her Shelby instead :) The weird part is that Shelly happens to be Asian and adopted from Thailand. She is the first person I had ever met that was adopted. So I guess she is considered my "Token Adopted Friend" (ha-just kiddin). Shelly is a great friend and I am sure to look to her for advice on raising Shelby and some of the issues adoptees face today. Anyway, once Shelly became pregnant I even tried to convince her to name her daughter Shelby (haha). I just knew there was an Asian baby named Shelby somewhere in my future. Here is a picture of Shelly and her husband Burl, along with her 2 daughters- Leah and Erin. (the name Shelby wasn't meant for her daughters :)

So after my boys, I figured that Shelby wasn't going to be part of our family names. Even though I would always say that I was one day going to get my own Shelby baby, I just didn't know how that was ever going to be possible. Well obviously, God had a plan! Once CJ and I were fortunate enough to embark on this adoption journey, we started talking about names. CJ automatically assumed that we would name our daughter Shelby. I actually wasn't so sure since Shelby had always been this mythical person in my dreams. After looking through all the baby name books, nothing seemed to fit. It finally occured to me that Shelby wasn't just a dream anymore, she was REAL. She had only lived in my dreams before and now finally God was making this dream come true :)

Now for her middle name. We have chosen to give our children a middle name that is significant to someone special in our lives. Caleb has his father and grandfather's middle name. Travis has his great grandfather's middle name. So now Shelby will have my sister, her aunt's, middle name- Ann. She will also be keeping her original given name by the orphanage-Fuhong. So there you have it...MISS SHELBY ANN FUHONG STRAIGHT! What a great name!!