Yesterday Hayden, Dennis, Daniel and I went to the Lancaster County Courthouse (Nebraska; not Pennsylvania) to appear before a judge to finalize in the U.S. our adoption of Daniel. At the same time, we officially changed his name from the Ethiopian Court-ordered "Daniel Dennis Florom" to our choice of "Daniel Tarik Florom." Picking a middle name was a months-long process. We settled on Tarik after considering and discarding several other options
. Tarik means
History, and is a form of Tariku, which means
He has a story to tell. We thought this was appropriate since he lived the first 7 years of his life in Ethiopia. He definitely has a story to tell. Sometimes he's in the mood to give us large glimpses of his life in Abi Adi. Last week he told me he could pretty much sleep wherever he wanted to as long as it wasn't in the place where they parked the cars because the guy who guards that will hit you with a baseball bat.
At other times he acts like he doesn't remember a thing. Storytelling is on his terms.
As he grows, I hope his story will include us, a family that dearly loves him and loves getting to know him, and also Jesus who knows his story from beginning to end.
