THE MATCHING ROOM

How does China match babies 

with parents? The dossiers containing detailed reports submitted by the adoptive families (like us!) are stored in the “Matching Room.” (See photos) The photo on the upper right shows a cubicle with little postage stamps attached to a white board. Those are actually the photos of available babies!

The Matching Room employees of the Chinese adoption authority match the files of the available babies with the files of the available parents. Everyone says they do a great job matching the parents with the right baby.

After our long wait, we are moving toward the front of the queue of waiting families. That means they will be matching us soon!

Apparently, they match based on:

1. Chinese astrological signs - We are a dragon and a rabbit, so we will get a baby who is a.... a furry alligator???

2. Facial feature similarity - This may be easier than I thought! I just did an on-line facial structure analysis (see below) which matches you with a celebrity, and all my look-alike celebrities were Chinese. Dino may be a long shot though!

3. Hobbies / Interests - For example, parents who are musicians may be matched with a baby who responds well to music. I guess this means that the baby who loves to tackle the others will be selected for our rugby-loving family. Get your helmets out!

THE NAME GAME

Greek tradition, which we are happy to accommodate, basically suggests that babies should be named for their grandparents, starting with the paternal grandparents. That is why in the “Big Fat Greek Wedding” all the cousins were called variations of Nick - they all had the same paternal grandfather.

So for our baby, the paternal grandparent names are:
Antonia (for Dino’s dad, Antonis)
Evgenia (for Dino’s mom, Eugenia)

The maternal grandparent names are:
Eleni (for my dad, Alan - although Eleni means Helen)
Sylvie (for my mom, Sylvia)

Breaking with tradition, we could name the baby for her daddy. Dino is short for Constantinos, and the girly version is Constantina. What do you think of Coco for a nickname?

So those are the choices du jour. Please vote for your favourites on the bar to the right! Yeah, I know it is a weird selection. Other ideas are welcome!