Placement Day

I haven't posted about this yet, because it was such a sacred experience it is hard to put into words.  There really were angels in the room with us at noon on June 12, 2012.  I think for now I will just post some photos and then tell you a little about how we chose Kalia's name and what it means.

Kalia's name:
A few days after learning that we were going to be parents again, I pulled out our copy of Hawaiian Names English Names by Eileen M. Root to look for a Hawaiian name for our daughter.  She technically isn't Hawaiian at all.  Most of her genetic makeup is Micronesian.  Her birth mom is from the island of Kosrae in Micronesia and is 3/4 Micronesian and 1/4 East Indian.  Her birth father is also Micronesian, but we don't know a lot about him.

The name I was drawn to in the book was Meakalia which means "The waited for one".  With five syllables, we would most likely shorten her name and I wanted to make sure when we shortened it, we didn't alter the meaning of the word...which can happen very easily with Hawaiian words.  I have a friend on Maui who is a Hawaiian language expert, so I emailed her and ask for her advice.  She wrote, "Naming is so important, especially Hawaiian names.  I'm so glad you asked for guidance.  I would suggest not using mea at all.  It has too much negative connotation to it.  Kalia is beautiful and perfect as it is."


I have a Hawaiian dictionary, so I looked up the pieces to her name.  Ka means the, and is used with most Hawaiian words.  Li'a means strong desire, yearning or to yearn for.  Kali means to wait or hesitate.  We started this adoption process five and a half years ago and have been praying and waiting for this sweet little girl for a long time!  This was why we chose to name her Kalia.  Partly for the meaning of the name and partly because she was born in Hawaii and has a Pacific Islander heritage.


Kalia's middle name is Willamina.  Her middle name was chosen to honor two of her ancestors...one adopted and one birth relative.  My grandmother who passed away in May was named Wilma.  We received the news that Kalia would be joining our family on the day I arrived home from attending my grandmother's funeral.  We feel that my grandmother had a hand in helping Kalia find her way to our family.  Kalia's birth grandmother (who passed away a few years ago) was named Cathmina.  Our birth mother named her three year old daughter after her mother, so Kalia's birth half-sister is also named Cathmina.  We wanted her to have a connection with her birth family as well as with her adoptive family, so we chose Willa to honor her adoptive family heritage and Mina to honor her birth family heritage.