We have travel approval and a consulate date! We ARE traveling to pick her up! All of these months of preparation, paperwork, patience and prayers...
Everlee Mei will be in our arms on Monday, July 22nd! It is actually happening!
After weeks of disputes, we settled on her name. It is unique (or was until last week - thanks Channing Tatum), feminine, a non two syllable name to off-set our two syllable last name, and on the same playing field as our boys' names. Even then, the dispute continued for another week over the spelling. Everly? No, it looks like Beverly without the B. This is how we originally found the name though. It is an English surname just like Beck and Penn are. Everleigh? Beautiful and honors my sister with her middle name of Leigh, but too much for a little girl to write. Everlee? Just right.
We reached the conclusion of the double EE once we realized each of us had one E in our name.
An E from each of us.
I love cheesy stuff and finding the tiniest meaning in anything. (And I always liked the double EE ending of our childhood friend, Ashlee Baker.)
Her middle name honors my Mom. I wanted to find someway of honoring her without using Pamela or Sue. Mom was born in May. I changed the spelling to Mei for two reasons: I wanted the mother-in-law I adore, Cheryl, to be honored with her own inclusion of an E and Mei means little sister in Chinese. That she is.
Perfect.
Months ago, we made a mini scrapbook of family pictures to send to Everlee. Beck made his "mei" a card to go with it. I took pictures of the absolute cuteness before we mailed it out.
Clearly, spelling is not his - or Mommy's - strong suit. Remember when I spelled marriage wrong on our wedding invitations...? "Really" was immediately added as a practice word in homeschool that week.
I love how he asked about her palate and his concern about what he will eat while in country. Meet Beck, my 45-year-old trapped in a 7-year-old's body. I often have to remind him to be a kid. But, boy is he pumped to bring his sister home! Goochy is too. He talks about "Eh-va-wee" when he plays in her room, refuses to be the baby, and sees any "girl" toy. "Eh-va-wee will like pink like me. Eh-va-wee is the baby. This is Eh-va-wee's room." Gotcha Day can't come soon enough.
So we wait and love from afar. Not too much longer now.
We. Are. Ready.
