Baby Names

If you're hopping over from Kelly's this week, welcome!  And if you're not, you're more than welcome too!  :)

When I was younger I dreamed of all the wonderful names I would bestow upon my future children.  Of course, most of those names were of the female persuasion- having all boys never entered my mind back then.  Anyhow, somewhere along the way, I stumbled across the name "Ethan," which is actually my name, without the "b" or the "y."  I thought (and still do think) that was pretty awesome!  Bill wasn't nearly as smitten with the name as I was, but in the end, it seemed perfect, and our precious 9+ lb, could've-been-born-at-30-weeks-but-didn't-arrive-until-42 weeks perfect baby boy was named Ethan Jacob Greenleaf Paige. (Greenleaf is my legal middle name, my maiden name- there are not a whole lot of reasonable naming options in our families, so we decided to honor both family sides this way.)

Flash forward 10 months and we are now expecting Baby #2.  We wanted to be surprised with this baby, and of course I could not decide on a girl's name to save my life, and it didn't matter!  We welcomed our perfect Jonah Gabriel Greenleaf Paige into the world and our family, just a few days late, and a few ounces bigger!  I remember so clearly sitting in Bible study with one of my dearest friends and mentors in the world, Andrea, a few weeks before the delivery, and I was doodling baby names on the margin of my book- Jonah had been chosen for a boy, but we still hadn't found the right middle name.  Suddenly it was like God just whispered right into my ear the name Gabriel, and it made my heart absolutely swoon.  Still does!

Now of course, it still hadn't dawned on me that both boys have 5-letter names straight from the Bible (Ethan was a music director from the Old Testament), so when we were (really) surprised with our third little boy later that year, and even more surprised at his emergency C-section delivery, we had nothing.  No names!  No ideas!  I just assumed we had another week or so with my history.  The names Aaron and Andrew kept popping into my head, but they didn't fit.  I don't know how we settled on the name Caleb, but once we thought of it, there was no turning back....so at nearly two days old, after holding our new son only once by that point, we knew he was meant to be our Caleb Andrew Greenleaf Paige.  My heart just skipped a beat at the sound of his beautiful name- just like it did in the hospital back then- and he is such a beautiful child!

Shortly after Caleb's birth, I realized the whole 5-letter name "thing," and I got a bit nervous for our future daughter's name- there aren't many to choose from!  Lydia was a contender for a long while, but I could never settle on it.  When we finally got our referral and pictures of our wonderful new baby girl, she didn't look like a Lydia to us.  It turned out that I wouldn't have to think of a name anyway...because her big brothers hung onto the name Isabelle from day one!  I fought against it, but in the end, she was meant to be Isabelle; her birth name is Katherine (very unusual for a Guatemalan child, and even more evidence that she was set apart for us- Katherine is the only name that has remained on my list from childhood!), so she is now Isabelle Katherine Greenleaf Paige.  Elizabeth is also a cherished family name, and Isabelle is the Spanish equivalent- so neat!  And I just love how it was her big brothers that chose her name!  Sigh.  God is so good!

When we were praying about whether to expand our family, recently, and not so recently now, here are the two names we chose: Silas Nathaniel and Annabeth Chloe- they just make my heart so happy!  (I LOVE how Isabelle and Annabeth sound together!!  And it's close to my name again- oh dear, do I have some vanity/ego tendencies here????)

There you have it!  I'm smiling so big right now after having thought through the process of naming each of our children, so thank you Kelly!  :)  Be sure to check out other great stories here!

Have a great weekend!