THE NAME

Before we knew who our daughter was,  Mark and I quickly agreed on a name and planned to use her Chinese name as her middle name. After we were matched with her, whenever someone would ask what her Chinese name was, I just loved the way it sounded. I loved saying it. It was her. THAT was her name. So after much debate, figuring, and deciding, we ditched the original name and came up with the perfect name for our little sweetie...

LUYANA CLAIRE

 

Say "Lu" like Lou and "yana" with the short A sound. (Like the A in art NOT like the A in grape.)

 

Our daughter's Chinese name is Lu Yan. We chose the name Luyana to honor her heritage and her beginnings. Claire because that's been Mark and my favorite girl name for a long time. Luyana Claire Potgeter, we can't wait to meet you in person!

When I was pregnant with Little Buddy, we had a prenatal name for him: Kip (think Napoleon Dynamite...you get the picture). It was a name that Mark always joked that he liked so I allowed him to call him that prenatally only! So we needed a pre-adoption name for our daughter and hadn't come up with one when my brother randomly called her Lulu. So it was very interesting when we saw her name was Lu Yan!  At this point we plan to transition off of Lulu and onto Yana as a nickname. My mother-in-law called me tonight and told me that Yana is a Hebrew name and means "He answers". I tried not to cry when she said that because yes, He does. Every time.