Decisions, Decisons!

Joy, Faith, Abigale, Dana, Dhura, Asha, Patricia Dianne, Authority, Gabi, Annie and Melani. Thank you for this sampling of suggested names for our baby girl. They are all wonderful. But as Pat and I discovered, choosing the right name was harder then it seems.

There were several names we chose during the long wait that we liked, but that changed the day we saw her tiny face for the first time. Captured in the millisecond of time it took to snap that photograph a glimpse of a real baby's personality was revealed to us. We were faced with our first parental responsibility...giving her a name. I hope we got it right!

She is Devi Rose Bhargabi Ross. Devi is a Hindi name which means goddess. We liked the "D" sound and it goes nicely with our nickname Deedee after my mother. It was in one of mom's last lucid moments that I shared this idea with her and with a raise of her eyebrows and an unforgettable stare, I knew she was pleased.

Rose is to honor Patrick's great aunt Rose. Aunt Rose is now in heaven, but she was a strong woman in her day; a real go-getter. She played basketball in long skirts long before sports for women was common and hiked clear to the top of Pike's Peak! She was happily married to a man named Henry, but never had children of her own. Instead, it is said that she adopted many children in her chosen field. She was a school teacher who taught first in a one room school house in Poverty Gulch, CO, later becoming a principal in Wheatridge, CO. This school was eventually named and still is known as Rose A. Stein Elementary.

We kept Bhargabi because it was the first thing ever given to her and it is hers to keep.

During this process of trying out names, we yelled them out in stern voices, and whispered them soft tones. We wrote it down; tried shortened versions of it; moved the names around. Will the acronym look good on a towel? a brief case? Lord help us! I hope as we go along that we will become better at decision making :)

Our Bengali Girl!

She can be serious...

She can smile!

As our luck would have it, another Dillon family is in India right now picking up their new daughter, Anela. They were so gracious as take pictures of our Deedee. These were taken yesterday!

We are still undecided about her name, however, we have learned a bit about the name Bhargabi. Pat and I have consulted several sources :) and have found that Bhargabi is the name of a famous river in India that runs from inland to the Sea of Bengal through the state of Orissa. She was named by Ms. Anju Roy or Dr. Butta at the babies home.

Those delicious eyes have this mom in heaven!

Step One - Signing

We have had a hard time having the packet of acceptance papers notarized. Our bank hedged when they saw the number of pages that needed a notary stamp. Then they flat out refused when they saw the bundles of paperwork from India had stickers denoting where the notary should sign and were bound with string rather than a staple or paperclip.

After searching through our network of friends, we found out our next door neighbor, Lesley, is a notary. Who knew? She agreed to come over and do the signing with us. On her way, she noticed a hint of smoke in the air and as she neared our entry, noticed smoke rising from the skylight of the house directly behind ours. Patrick met her at our front door and by the time he could get the phone to dial 911, the windows were breaking out of the neighbors house, now totally on fire! Luckily, the home was vacant while a major remodel was being completed. We stood and watched as the firefighters axed their way into the smoke filled basement area and attempted to save the shell of the home.

The ironic part of the story is the day I was born, April 30th 1963, my parents watched out the window of the hospital as the Music Box Theater burned to the ground in Tacoma. My dad was a firefighter so next to my birth this was a big event! Throughout my life, the story of my birth always ended with "That was the day of the famous Music Box Theater fire!"

While Bhargabi was obviously all ready born, this was the day that we officially took steps to make her a part of our family. Growing up in a firefighter family there has always been a fascination with the work they do and I'm sure this day will always be remembered as the day we signed papers and watched the neighbors house burn!

The good news is our papers are in route to Kolkata, India right now! The last time I tracked our package it was in New York, but headed international! Once signed, Ms. Anju Roy and her staff at ISRC will review the acceptance paperwork, along with our dossier and prepare our case for CARA (Central Adoption Resource Agency). This step can take 2-4 weeks.