naming Her.

In the weeks leading up to Mistletoe's birth I kept coming back to the story of creation. God allows Man to name every created thing. Each creation comes before Man to be named. God could have easily named everything and just told Man what everything was called, end of story, but He didn't, He asked Man to share in the creation. The same is true of having children. He could simply decree what to name each child, but instead He lets us share in creation. Not only are we co-creators with God in bringing forth life, but we also get the distinct honor of being able to name the children that we bring forth. It is a humbling honor when you stop to think about it. When we found out we were pregnant this time around, I was pretty convinced we were having a boy, so it wasn't until our 20 week ultrasound that we discovered we were having another girl and would need another girl name. As was true with Monkey, we bounced a lot of names around. With Anthony having been a teacher for over six years and my six years in children's and youth ministry, it us safe to say there's a sizable list of names we'll never use. The one that we kept coming back to was Caeli, pronounced chay-lee. Caeli, Latin in origin, comes from the title for the Blessed Mother, Regina Caeli, meaning Queen of Heaven. With the year that we've had (more on that in another post), we knew that she was a gift from Heaven, and we've always had a great devotion to Mary, so the name simply fit. With her first name decided, her middle name also fell into place. Her middle name, Grace, goes perfectly with her first name. Once translated, her name means Heaven's grace - pretty fantastic if you ask me. Short, simple, and sweet, I am so grateful that God not only allows us to create and bring forth new life, but that He also allows us to choose such meaningful names for our children. Welcome to the world, Ms. Caeli Grace!