"Thinking of..." Black & White Wednesday

I know it has been some time since I last posted to Lisa's amazing Black & White Wednesday, but in all defense...I have been busy (and a little crazy at times too)! As many of you know, we are getting ready to travel once again to China for our third child ~ our first son! And while I do see my world of dolls, dress-up, and pretend make-up soon to be including Hot Wheels, bubble guns, race tracks, and insect houses ~ I am loving everything about it!

I never imagined myself having a little boy...

Well ~ almost never...

Back many moons ago before I even thought adoption was possible for us ~ for me....

I was so sure that if God blessed me with a baby, that baby would be a boy. I used to think about boys names constantly ~ Micheal Kristopher, Kristopher Joseph, Joshua Micheal, Kevin Randy, and Randy Kevin...well you get the idea...(I explain later about the name choices)...

As you can see, our family did not start off by having a little boy but was truly blessed by adopting a baby girl from China and seeing how I had no girls names in mind, I had to come up with something quickly.

I do believe many of you know how I got Francesca's name. It is really simple. I wanted an Italian name for my daughter. Coming from a family of 100% Italian blood flowing through our veins, I knew I wanted my daughter to become a part of our very rich and proud heritage! My mom, grandmother and I started playing the name game...Stelina, Carmela, Antonella, Bianca, Caterina, Nicolina (after my grandmother) and Chiara...but none of theses names felt like the perfect one for our perfect daughter. Than one night while flipping through the channels on our TV, I came across the movie, "Under The Tuscan Sun" which only started about five minutes prior to me coming across it. Having seen this movie before and truly enjoying it, I put down the remote and started watching it ~ once again ~ for probably the 15th time. As many of you know, the main character of the movie name was Frances. So when she decided to restart her life and move from the states to Italy, her name quickly changed from Frances to Francesca. I so can remember the exact point in the movie where her name is being called out, "Francesca!" It was at that moment I knew what I wanted my daughter's name to be.

As for our Annabelle ~ that is really simple. Her unknown and amazing sponsor while she was at Hope in Beijing was responsable for the funding her life saving surgery. Her sponsor named her Annabelle Faith and seeing how we are so beyond grateful to this unknown person, we just had to keep her name given to her by this blessed angel.

Now getting back to our little man....

It's not that I never imagined being blessed with a little boy, but after traveling down the roads that we did to get where were, our two girls were all I ever thought we would be blessed with.

And as you all know...that one year ago this past month on May 4, 2009 that all changed for us.

We were asked to review a file on a very special little boy in Luoyang City Children's Welfare, Henan Province, China and within minutes of seeing his face and reading his history, we said YES!!!

a little boy from China....

So that leads me to where I am at today ~ thinking of China once again. Our travel time is coming up fast, for I am thinking we will be traveling sometime in June and getting a family of four ready to travel for over two weeks to country that is half way around the world is not easy...let alone packing for number five.

This is a photo that Keith took when we visited the Summer Palace back in 2008 (when we traveled for our Annabelle). It is also one of the photos I was able to save from my crashed notebook. After tweeking it up just a bit and changing it from color to black & white, I knew it was the perfect photo for me to share with you all today of where we are headed...




and just so I can show off some of Keith's amazing photography here is the original photo that was taken...




So there you have your answer ~ this is what I am "thinking of..."


(if you are interested in learning more about our little man who is waiting for us in China and would like to follow along in our journey this coming summer, please visit his web site.)

Now as for those boys names...I wanted the name Micheal for he would be named after the little boy my grandmother lost some many years ago. As for Kristopher, Joseph, and Joshua, they are just some names that I loved and as for Kevin and Randy...My husband Keith is an identical twin. His brother's name is Russell. When the twins were born, four names were tossed around...Keith, Kevin, Russell, and Randy. Keith & Russell where the chosen names so in honer of those two names that could have been ~ they too were in the running. But seeing how we chosen Benjamin ~ none of those names were the perfect choice for our little man.


Make sure you check out all the truly talented photographers that feature their personal breath-taking B&W photos on Lisa's Black & White Wednesday! And if you have a black & white to share with everyone else, please do so on her web site!