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What's in a name?

What's in a name? That which we call 'Shaohannah' by any other name would smell not sweet, would not mean 'laughter' (Shao), would not mean 'gift of God’s grace' (Hannah). Shaohannah is the first adopted daughter of the Chapmans; she is an orphan from China. She is now 6 years old. Since then, the Chapmans had adopted 2 more daughters from China, and had set up Shaohannah's Hope, a foundation for helping families adopt orphans in the US or abroad. Her full name is Shaohannah Hope Yan Chapman. Steven describes the scene when his family 'took her in' (from FamilyChristian.com):

'When I saw my wife take Shaohannah and take her into her arms, and it really was like that scene in 'The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.' It's like your heart (expanding). And you can see it happen. You can see her go from an hour before, crying, saying, 'What if I can't love her as much as I do my other children? What if? What if? What if? What if?' and put her in her arms and it's just like, 'This is my daughter. This is flesh of my flesh. It’s part of me.' And God just does this miraculous thing. Our whole family, it's like we took her in, our love for her took her in but love took us or she took us in too. Our love for her – we were taken in as well.'

30 April 2006