Goin' Courtin'

We found out that Zeke's court date is set: October 29th. This is the day when a local judge will formally recognize his foreign adoption, approve his name change, and clear the way for us to get a Missouri-issued birth certificate. We're very happy about this! Some have asked if Zeke is a US citizen. The answer is yes. A federal law passed several years ago allows internationally-adopted children who enter the US on a certain type of visa to be recognized as US citizens immediately. Pretty cool. We're excited to get his name changed. It was pretty funny last week to see the pediatric nurse come into the waiting room with a puzzled look on her face. I knew she had Zeke's chart. But it had his Vietnamese name on there: Dung (pronounced like "Zoom" but she didn't know that). I figured she didn't want to come into the waiting room and yell, "DUNG!" Anyway, she went back into the office and came out and approached us directly and before she could say anything, I said, "Are you looking for baby Hoang?" She smiled, visibly relieved and said yes. I told her how to pronounce his Vietnamese name and she said, "Yeah, I never would've guessed that." By the way, Zeke's Vietnamese name has the coolest meaning: Dung Anh=brave and smart. Brave and smart...that's our baby!!