FAQ #7

(more from the Adoption Archive):
 
"Are you changing their names?"

I'm getting this one a LOT lately. A. LOT.

Short answer: First names*, no. Middle and last names, yes. (*with the exception of the spelling of one child's name in hopes it will be more pronounceable at first glance).

Long Answer: This is something I've felt very strongly about since 2007. There have been some WONKY NAMES in my house. Really, really out there type names. A portion of these three amigos may or may not fit into that category. But these are their names. Their identities. How people know them. How they know each other. The children attached to these names are the children I have grown to love. Their names fit them. At the end of the day, they are all each other has so changing even this small part of their identity seems to cross a line. Calling them something else just doesn't make sense to me.

Plenty of people do it. Those people are certainly allowed to make their own decisions. But my belief is that they are who they are and we'll carry those names for as long as they want them. If somewhere down the road, someone decides they don't want to go by the name given to them by their birth mother, that's fine. Move on over to the middle name.

But for now, they are still Speed, Sunshine and Chickadee.