Thanks Karoline for sending it to me. There are literally hundereds of books about India! I purchased The Martina doll (16" doll with a sindur mark on her forehead), a book about teenage Indian refugees, and a children's book entitled "Anni's Journal". I wanted so many more things! I'm sure I will be purchasing more in the future. I've been searching for a way to teach my boys about India, and to learn of it myself so that I can keep Rani's culture strong and alive inside her. This is wonderful! They also have books and items from many other cultures. The site is called Culture for Kids.

Dave and I are still no closer on her name. I did find out that Gandha means fragrant, so now she's a fragrant queen :-) Sigh, I figure it's got to be a form of Rajanigandha or Rajnigandha which means night blossoming scented flower. That's pretty nice. I definately lean toward Rania which also means queen. Dave is pretty set on keeping it at Ranigandha though. Maybe Ranigandha Zilpha? Zilpha is my great-grandmother's name.

What part of India is she from? There are huge differences in areas, as might be expected from such a huge country. We have been doing a cultural immersion study of India for the past year. See if your library system has any good kids books set in India. One we like is called In the Heart of the Village by Barbara Bash. It is about banyan trees.

We've also been watching a lot of Indian movies. We can check them out from the library, but we live in a very culturally diverse area so I don't know if you will have as many available to you (aren't you in Utah?). Some of the movies are available at places like Hollywood Video or Blockbuster - Lagaan (which is one of the few appropriate for kids), Asoka & Mission Kashmir are ones I know we have rented (the last 2 are too violent for kids but great for adults). Just know if you watch their movies that their movie form is different than Western movies - they all include music & dance. It can be startling at first if you don't know to expect it. :-)

Another thing my kids have enjoyed is cooking/eating Indian food. Pick a region and explore foods from there. We also have been able to get Indian clothes (from an aquaintance who was going back to visit family in India) for the kids. They love to dress up and dance to music from Indian movies.

Good luck with your adoption. Rani is a very popular girl's name in India - it means queen. Arani is pretty too.

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