James Sitong

My brother finally has his American name: James. His name was breathed from the book of James..."care for the widows and orphans"...

I would like to take credit for this name idea. So would Claire. But, whichever of us came up with this name first [ie me], our sweet brother, who has been "Lu" for so long, finally has a name that will suit his new culture, his new family, his new life.

But while we wait here in America, James remains immersed in his own culture. There, he isn't "James" or "Jimmy" or "Uncle Sam". His Chinese name is Sitong, and while we want him to adapt completely to his life here, we know that some bit of him will always be in China...three years of us apart from each other are sure to leave their mark. We can't and won't force him into a new identity by "changing" his name.

James Sitong. A piece of self, a piece of China past, and a piece of family.

I love him so much already. I think about him often...as we all do.

Love and peace,

Ali

Now we wait...

What we are waiting for now is a RA, an official Referral Acceptance of our family to adopt Lu Sitong. That comes after the CCAA views our dossier and all of our documents. After that we wait for TA which is Travel Approval. An email sent said the typical time from RA to travel is 7-9 weeks. So my mind is spinning and I feel I have so much to do! It's hard to believe it is becoming a reality. It is also harder to think of him in the orphanage. Claire and I went online looking for photos of the orphanage or possibly him in another photo. We saw some photos of the orphanage which was pretty exciting. Also Ali shared with me the other day that she has been writing letters to her brother! Wow did that touch my heart!