Extra Brave

About a month ago, a sweet friend of mine, Andrea, offered to translate Joseph's Chinese name for us. If you are a blog stalker, you might affectionately know her as "Rini's Mom" and you may know of her beautiful family, and their precious survivor Empress Rini, through her blog. Andrea and I share a love for heart babies, and we also share the same adoption agency!

In all of Andrea's busyness with her family, and the medical needs of her precious children, (not to mention her dedicated advocacy efforts) I was so thankful for Andrea's kind offer, as this was something I'd often wondered about, and it was not mentioned in Joseph's file. 

Andrea was able to translate his name by looking at his Chinese file, which contained the characters for his Chinese name, Xiao Xiao ( 骁 骁 )

I waited, with anticipation, for this reply:

  "The character used for "Xiao" means "brave, strong."  

When doubled, it means "very" or "extra." 

We know in our hearts that Joseph is, indeed, extra brave and strong. All of these children are, aren't they? They are all warriors in their own right, surviving with and without things that most of us take for granted on a daily basis.

I can't begin to imagine what the first five years of our son's life have been like. But come August, that's all about to change...