DS came to us just a few days after his 1st birthday. He already knew his Colombian name, but we did change his name, keeping his Colombian middle name - which was the name he went by. DD came to us at 2.5 years of age. She most definitely knew and answered to her name, and yes we changed it. We kept her Chinese name as her middle name as well, and she still calls herself by it sometimes which is fine with us. We didn't make either change the minute we got them, we worked into it slowly. The first week or so we didn't use the new names at all, just gave them a chance to get to know us. When we started making the switch (after a week with our son, after about a month with our daughter.. we had other language barriers to overcome with her whereas we could speak Spanish to him!), we started by pairing the new name with the old name, so our son became "Samuel Sebis" (Colombian short for Sebastian) and our daughter became "Isabelle Caiyi". Again we did this for a while, until we were certain that they understood the entire phrase meant them. Then we went finally to just the new names. Our kids are happy and well adjusted and seem to like their names just fine. They both know their original names and we use them not only as middle names but also as kind of pet names. My son gets a kick out of it when I call him Sebis or Juancheese (his name was Juan Sebastian and Juancheese was a nickname the ladies in Colombia gave him for his big smile).
__________________ Brandy(33) DH Dan(33) DS Samuel Sebastian(6) - Adopted from Colombia DD Isabelle Caiyi(5) - Adopted from China RNY Gastric Bypass surgery 1/30/2009 Highest/Surgery/Current/Goal: 306/301/199/165
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