Sunday, February 06, 2011

Apparently

there's a football game going on. The only reason that interests me is because usually it serves as a good excuse to eat copious amounts of crap food I don't usually eat. Well...I've had the flu since yesterday (very mild case, my body's gotten pretty good at fighting stuff off) so that wasn't nearly as appealing to me as it has been in year's past.

As a quick aside, yesterday as I was laying on the couch begging for death, this surrounded me. Darn I love this man.

Annnnnnyyyyyway, let me answer a few questions that came up from my last post.

1) Tomas's hair cut. yeah, he was "forgetting" to comb his hair every day. So I finally said, "Tomas, I love your hair, you love your hair. But if you don't start combing it, we are going to have to cut it." He told me to cut it. So that's what I Zach did. He loves it.

2) Their names. In Ethiopia, babies are given a first name and then their middle name (it's a bit different than our version of "middle name") is actually their dad's first name. Their last name (again a bit different) is actually their paternal grandfather's first name. We chose to keep all 3 given Ethiopian names for Tomas, Tariku and Binyam so that when they go to Ethiopia they will be able to find any and all remaining family members relatively easily.

So Tomas is basically Thomas of the Bible. Binyam is Benjamin of the Bible. Tariku means "his history" in Amharic. Very cool names.

We gave Tariku the name "Xavier" (so his full name is Tariku Asamo Abiyu Xavier Klipsch) mostly because we liked it but also because it goes back many generations in Zach's side of the family.

We had read in various places that adopted kiddos liked having their adopted parents name them as well. It kind of gives ownership (which is a horrible word for what I'm trying to say), particularly when the family has biological babes mixed in as well.

We gave Tomas the name "John" because that is my dad's name and I happen to love him a whole lot. :) It's also my brother's middle name and, if you've been here for awhile, you know I happen to love him a whole lot as well.

Binyam we gave "Malachi" because it's a name I've loved since I can remember hearing it. After hearing it was actually a chapter in the Bible (who knew?) I read and reread it. It's perfect for our little Bini boy.

Yes we know their names are long and perhaps a wee bit complicated. But it tells their story, their complete story, we couldn't possibly have changed that. And you should hear them recite their names. The look of pride on their faces is unmistakeable. No doubts in my mind, we did the right thing in this case anyway.

So there you have it, hair and names. Both are kind of a big deal around here. :)

6 comments:

ChiTown Girl said...

Thank you so much, Tesi, for the details. Truthfully, I had forgotten that Tomas and Biny were actually biological brothers. (I just spent 30 minutes going back through your archives to be sure! I'm such a dork!)

Congratulations, again, to the Klipsch Family!!

Jess said...

Love the names. Love the hair.

um...when are you coming for real???

Me said...

I agree with u on names. John and I have talked of him adopting the boys... however I've asked him that we add his last name to there current names, not in place of :) I believe that just because their father died, does not mean they lose that part of themselves. Their last names from Ryan DO tell their history, their "story" if u will... same reason my last name is now 2 :) my first last name tells a story of happiness that trumped the sadness and my second last name proves that happiness can happen again :)

Tressa said...

Love all the names... We did the same thing with our children from Ethiopia:)

Becky Nakashima Brooke said...

Love this:)

cathy said...

sometimes i cannot get over how much tomas looks like tariku--and with his hair short and his smile so prominent, even more so. is it just me? congrats on the readoption. sorry you were under the weather. hope the rest of this week is great.