World: Meet the Fruvellhoffs

Alright folks.  Here we are.  Last blog post of 2015.  It's been such an amazing year for all of us.  Lots of growth: personal, professional, as parents, as kids, as a couple, and as a family.  By and large, it's been a very positive year, one for the ages.  Meg and I are filled with much gratitude, and also pride, as we look back on this past year.

Fruvellhoff.  This is one issue that hasn't been brought up yet in this blog.  For those who don't know, we legally changed our last name to Fruvellhoff.  It's a combination of the 3 last names that we had when we were married:  Fruhwirth, and Harvell-Hoffman.  We made this the last name of our kids as well.  Starting our own legacy, while remembering our heritage.

Some people want to understand why we did this, some people could not care less about the matter.  Some will accept this decision and act that we have performed, some will not.  Some will understand the logic, yet still feel that we are shunning tradition.  To each their own.

So why did we change our last names?  We did we feel so compelled?  For me, it really comes down to logic and equality.  Each of us comes from many combinations of many branches of many family trees.  Let's take a closer look at me.  My given name was John Russell Fruhwirth.  In no particular order, I'm a Richardson, a Fruhwirth, a Bailey, a Trumble.  And that's just the first level back.  What is it about the name Fruhwirth that makes it more important than the other 3 names?  Does that lineage define me as a person more than any of the other 3?  Now, imagine all of the last names of all of the humans in each of our ancestry.  How can we possibly pay homage and honor all of those lines of lineage, with our names?  They are all equally important to our own existence and state of being, are they not?

After much thought, I decided that there is currently no good way to pay homage and honor to each of our lineages, all summed up in one last name.  The best idea that we had, in this current time, is to combine our previous last names into one.  A brand new name that defines our family, our own legacy.  Because really, this represents who we are pretty well don't you think?  It contains direct elements of our lineage, yet it is a brand new creation.  Just like us.  Just like our family.  We are a combination that has never existed before, and will never exist again.  We honor our past, and believe fully in creating our own future.  Ties it together kinda nicely, don't you think?

The detail-oriented readers out there will notice that my mother's last name of Richardson was not included in Fruvellhoff.  This name was not one of our last names when we got married.  Also, adding more letters and syllables would be creating a long name, something we are trying to get away from.  Truth be told, I feel a bit of guilt about not finding a way to combine it.  Yet, that doesn't make me any less of a Richardson.  See what I mean?  There's really no good path forward with any last name choices due to puzzles like this.  So ultimately we just chose Fruvellhoff, and that's that.  Still quite proud to be a Richardson and of that lineage of my family tree.

So there you have it.

We created the Fruvellhoffs in 2015.  Lookout, world.

Happy new year folks.