Rasha and Fulsa--The eager parents to be...

Charlotte,

Your mommy and daddy really hope you like your name. I don't ever want you to deal with the crazy butchering of names that your father and I had to endure as children. (Gotta love being Romanian)--Now, I can't guarantee that there won't be some punk kid raised by wolves that won't find some way to tease you throughout life (but don't worry---you'll be fine. We all go through it and you'll be tough like your mom and dad and won't let a little name calling get you down.--plus daddy will teach you to fight and mommy will pass on her ability to make people fear you--so you'll be all set) But anyway, back to the name business. I would just like to give you a few little examples from mommy and daddy's lives of how our Romanian names have been destroyed and tortured.

First mommy's name--Fulga (Full-Ga) I know it sounds very strange to most but my mother loved the name and named me after a princess named Fulga. Mom--it might have worked in Romania--but here...not so much. No hard feelings mom--it provides me with many stories.

Case # 1
I've blocked out most of the elementary school memories of being called Froga or FLUga so case #1 just proves that name calling hurts but you get over it and can't even remember the details.

Case # 2
Flash forward to High School. Every first day of school was an adventure for me and my friends. It was alwasy sooooo fun to get down to the end of the alphabet and sense that the butchering of Fulga would begin at any moment. Once the name was said, I'd have to say my speech of, "Can you please call me Linda? I go by my middle name."---EVERY SINGLE TIME! Of course, the class would laugh--I'd turn bright red, and then we'd all move on. (12 years of dealing with this issue--it even got old for the rest of the kids in class.) Every time we had a substitute it would start all over-TORTURE! ---One day after the whole "Call me Linda fiasco"--my English teacher comes up to me and asks me if I was named after the VOLGA river? Luckily, I knew about this river and was prepared to say, "My first name is Fulga--not VOLGA." It's cool, she didn't ask me in front of the whole class and she isn't a Geography teacher...so we all move on.

Case #3
History---Mr. Hobben's class--11th grade. It's the first day of school and our crazy German teacher makes all the kids stand up at the front of the room and when he calls our name we are to sit in the seat he assigns us. (Oh the terror---not only will he once again say Fulga but now I have to stand in front of the room.) We get through the S's---we get through the T's and we're heading down to the V's on the role sheet. By now there are about 4 kids left standing waiting for their name to be called. My teacher says, Fulsa? I don't move, in fact--I don't even flinch---I'm thinking...hmm--who's that? He says it again, louder...FULSA!?--nothing from me...and if my memory serves me correctly he says it a third time...Fulsa Viad? Oh brother--it was then I knew--that darn role sheet with it's digital like font--did not print out the entire G in Fulga or L in Vlad. So I say, "Oh that's me--but that's not my name. It's Fulga but I go by Linda...and blah blah blah..." I'm sure Rachel is still laughing about this one. She was fortunate enough to witness it.

I think that's enough cases for mom---Next up...DAD---simple enough. 2 syllables RA-RESH---not so simple apparently.

We've heard it all---Raj (our wedding photographer called him that all day), Rashiki---that's how they announced him at his LAPD graduation and most recently and my favorite---our neighbor of over a year telling me to tell RASHA to come by later to see the backyard. I was so stunned I couldn't even correct him. But don't worry I will the next time I see him.

So my little precious Charlotte...I really hope you appreciate your name and never have to deal with what we've gone through.

Love you little one!