Irish Stew: All of the Familiar

Today, we leave for Guangzhou for the next leg of this trip. Oh boy...we'll see how this turns out! I think that the kids have been a little stir crazy for the past couple of days. We go out every day and go places and keep busy but when it comes down to it, they are tired of being in a hotel room. Duly noted. There's just nothing we can do about that right now. Still, we will fly to Guangzhou for several days and then we will be on our way home!

I should mention one thing that I haven't talked about much, and that is what we call Jia Qing. I mean, we refer to him as JQ or Jia Qing and we also call him that, but I've had several people ask what his American name will be. All of our other kids were given American names and we started calling them that relatively early on, sort of transitioning them into it. For instance, although Caleb was referred to as "Wu" for a year while we waited for him, his caregivers here were calling him Tian Tian. So that is what we called him for a while after his adoption, then Caleb Tian, then just Caleb.

With Jia Qing, it is different. At eight years old, he has so much more of an opinion about such things (not that toddlers do not have an opinion, we know), but also because of Jia's age and experience, we wanted him to know that we have given him an American name, but he can decide how he wants to be called.

His American name is Luke.

I told him this, and he said he liked it. At first, he wanted to go by that, but then he quickly changed his mind. No, he said, then pointed to himself. Jia Qing. We went through this again with Google translate (which I can only hope got the point across), but he wants to be called Jia Qing. So that's that. And it's great, because, well, that is his name anyway, right? We actually left it as his middle name on his paperwork: Luke JiaQing. It doesn't matter in the way that we have to be picky and make sure that he becomes "American" by choosing a different name. We do not feel that way. But it does matter in the way that he is comfortable with who he is and what he wants to be called. He is otherwise leaving so much behind...his language and his culture and most things familiar to him. On the outside, he is very happy and excited. He runs around with the other kids and shows us things and points stuff out to us. I just want to make sure that on the inside, his sweet heart doesn't break by giving up all of the familiar all at once. When we leave to come home to the U.S., it will be for good. We may come back to China again for a visit, but he will not live here again.

And so, I am thinking about this as we move on the Guangzhou today. We will still be in China, but it is the next leg of the trip that finalizes his paperwork at the consulate before we go home. To us, we will be glad to be home but to Jia Qing, it will be the start of everything brand new. It is a tough transition, and one we have not experienced before. Hopefully, with a little time and a lot of grace we will get through this.

I'm going to add a few more pictures of our week, since it has been busy! We have enjoyed exploring this city and looking around at the people and the interesting things to see. We went to an indoor play center a couple of days ago and everyone loved it (clarification: every child loved it). We were all very tired by day's end. As we keep moving forward into the next phase, we are sure to see more sights and have even more interesting experiences. I'm so glad that we are all here together!