What's in a name?

I have been chewing on this post for a while now.  Needing to put it out there, but not quite ready to do so.  I think I'm ready.  And the kids are not fighting at this moment, so it might give me time actually do it!

What is his name?  A question we hear often and it seems it would be easy to answer. It was easy to answer when he was a baby.  His name is Asa.  He was 5 months old and he wouldn't know any better when we got him home.  Asa James Vladik Kahler.  Long? Yes.  Every part significant?  Doubly yes.

Before we got our referral, I had secretly hoped that he would have a name we could pronounce.  A name that we could tell him about without butchering.  We were very pleased when we learned that his name was Vladik.  Straight forward, very "pronounceable", different (to us) but not weird.  I liked it from the first moment.  It is actually short for his full name: Vladislav.  And I love the meaning of that name.  "He who rules the world."  Yes.  Not necessarily a Christian name, but definitely a name that gives us pause to consider and reflect on the most basic tenet of our Christian faith.  Our God does indeed rule the world.  We wanted to keep the name Vladik as part of his whole name to honor the people who gave him that name: the orphanage director and his nannies.  His first "mothers" if you will.

The name Asa was on our short list.  We both liked it.  Short and sweet.  Not common, but again, not weird or made up.  A name that has significant history behind it. 

"So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years. And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God: For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves: And commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest, and he had no war in those years; because the LORD had given him rest." (2 Chr. 14:1-6).

The name Asa means "healer".  We did not choose it because of this meaning, but this meaning has molded our prayers for Asa and his birth country.  We pray and sincerely hope that someday, God would use our Asa to bring healing to his birth country.  A country that has endured years of occupation by an evil system of government.  A system that disables people and takes away their hopes and dreams and belief in themselves.  And a people who need healing and hope and the belief that they can be a proud people again.

Each of our children has a "J" name.  Bethany's middle name is Joelle, and of course, we have Josiah and Judah.  I told Mike that I did not want another J first name, so Asa's middle name had to start with a J.  That narrowed it down significantly!  My father's name is James and both Josiah and Judah have family names for middle names.  And of course, James 1:27 is an important tenet of our faith.  God calling us to care for widows and orphans. And it sounds good with Asa! 

And the looming question now that he is 4 years old...the part that makes the answer to "What is his name?" difficult...what are we going to actually call him?  We don't rightly know at this moment.  We have been calling him Asa for 3.5 years.  Our children have been calling him Asa for 3.5 years.  And everyone we know has been calling him Asa for 3.5 years.  But, he has only known the name Vladik for those same 3.5-4 years.  And, frankly, the name has grown on me.  I love calling him that name.  Actually, I call him Vladika, which is yet another nickname that is commonly used for his name.  Kind of like a young boy named Joseph would be called Joey and then later might go by Joe. 

What is his name?  The answer to that is Asa James Vladik Kahler.  That will be his legal name.  What will we call him?  It will probably depend on the day, the person doing the calling, the moment in time and it may change over time.  We will call him Vladik at first.  That is all he knows.  If he is open to going by Asa, we'll probably go with that.  If he is not?  He certainly let us know what he thought about us teaching him English on our bonding trip when he shouted at Daddy, "Why do you keep teaching me!!!" 

We would ask for you to pray that we would have wisdom in this matter.  We believe that it is a parents' role to name a child.  No matter how old that child is when he becomes your child.  It is a claiming of sorts.  And as you can see above, a name is a very significant thing to us.  It is not something we do halfheartedly, or for trivial reasons.  But the practical aspects of actually calling a kid by his new name?  I think that has to be coated in lots of grace and something we approach with a great deal of love and compassion for our new son.