Names...

I was reading the responses in RAM and wanted to share our story about names..*This is also one of those stories that my daughters will want to know later on, so here's one for the memory book!!

I had made the decision to adopt. I had chosen Russia over China. (At the time the decision was made based on wanting a child who could possibly look like me..)My documents were in Russia and I was waiting for a referral..  It had been a week since everything was "in" and I was working on the final documents for the second part of my dossier. That's when I got a call that my agency was going to FedEx a video and medical report on a child..I was just tickled.
At the time, I had tentatively planned on naming the baby Mary Garland. And then I saw the video.
++I had assumed that the baby would be a lifeless little lump surrounded by caregivers who had neither the time or desire to care for the child. I assumed I would see  a terribly sad clip of an unfortunate child..
But the Video. Oh The Video..
It was very short, but showed everything a doctor would need to see to make an educated guess on the health of the child.

 She was lying in her crib with a toy in her LEFT hand, and the caregiver chatted and sort of sung, "Khoroshaya devochka...Ohhhh Annichka, Ahhh, Annichka, Khoroshaya Annichka..

And I was sunk...Annichka. I loved it.  And since part of my name is Ann, I thought it was perfect. And since it is traditional to have double names in the south, I thought about keeping the name Anna as part of this baby's name. She definitely knew her name, and she was only 9 months. So I kept it and added Mary to it..
If I am honest, I wish I would have just left it as Anna, because only my mother and her teachers call her MaryAnna. Around these parts she is Anni. And almost as much, she is Annichka..


And then there is baby..
This was a situation much different than Anni's adoption. After being in "the system" during the whole re-organization of the MOE and the licensing of American agencies, I had been stuck for so long. And then all of the sudden I received a phone call asking if I would fly blind to Novosibirsk..I would be the first to go there through my agency, and would have to go without anything but a birthdate. And I did it. Just a few days after deciding to do this, I rec'd one sad little picture of Auggie. I almost changed my mind. It was that pitiful. I went searching on the database to find this child and she was there. I couldn't believe her name.

Anna. And not just the same first name as Anni, their names were so similar it struck me odd.

Big sister's full birth name:
Anna Vladimirovna Solovyova
and Now
Anna Vladimirovna Seleznova..
There was no way I could have used any part of her name. I didn't want to give her a name that was Russian but not really her name!
At points I wanted to name this child TwoLa Bell..Two as in baby number two, and Bell after my grandmother. Everyone said it was to silly. After all, we are not in Hollywood.

I wanted a name that sort of flowed with Anni's name. (Pronounced On-ee). When I would say that first Awww" I would always say, August. And then big sister got involved. She loved it when I would say August Lee. And big sister would always add Rose. So we played around with August Rose, August Lee, but in the end, we gave her all of the names.
AugustRose Lee 
I still wish there would have been some way of keeping a part of her name, but what are ya gonna do?

I would love to hear your children's names and how they came to be!