A GOOD NAME IS MORE DESIRABLE THAN GREAT RICHES...

today kelly's korner is hosting show us your life- BABY NAME EDITION. i'll admit that i'm a total name junkie. i read blogs about name. i love checking out this name graph and how different names rank each year. i jot down names on scrap pieces of paper to remember "just in case." so you can imagine how seriously i took the task of choosing names for our own children. it is a big task to find names that two parents both agree are perfect. in our family it is typically my role to do the research and present countless possibilities that i could grow to love forever and call our very own children. while evan's role is to nix almost all the names for reasons such as, "that doesn't sound like someone who could ever be a professional" or "sure, we can name our child that if you want to move to the back woods somewhere." this setup works for us, and i'm thankful to say we have successfully named two children using this strategy.

ADELAIDE KATE

on a day trip to london, five years before our daughter was born, i saw the name adelaide for the first time at a museum. i fell in love with it while reading about queen adelaide who was married to king william IV. after stepping outside onto the streets of london i rounded the corner and saw a building named "adelaide house." after seeing the name in writing for the second time that day i hoped someday i could use it for a daughter of my own. it also has special sentiment to us since evan and i met while in england. i hope akm's first name, ADELAIDE, inspires her to have piety, modesty, charity, and kindness like queen adelaide who was beloved by the british people for these things.

in 1991 i was still an only child who had prayed as long as i could remember for a sister. my parents had prayed for many, many years for more kids too. that september our prayers were answered when my sister, sara kate, was adopted. anytime people talk about experiencing God's faithfulness and His answers to prayers i immediately think of her and the amazing way God answered our prayers. she is such a special part of our family and i hope akm's middle name, KATE, inspires her to have great spunk, a tender heart, and live life to the fullest like her aunt, sara kate.

GRAHAM JAMES

gjm's first name is a name we have always liked. we don't find out whether our babies are boys or girls until they are born, which means in theory we should have a name ready for either gender. if adelaide had been a boy she would have been graham. the fact that evan and i both still loved the name two years later assured us that it was a great name for our family. people always tell us what a "strong name" it is. i'm never sure exactly what they mean by that, but i do hope his first name, GRAHAM, is always a reminder to be STRONG in the Lord and have great character. i pray he grows into his name throughout the years and always stands proud to be exactly who he was created to be.

JAMES is gjm's middle name, his daddy's middle name, his grandfather's first name, and his great-great grandfather's middle name. what a wonderful thing to share with these great men who were born before him. it is also the name of six us presidents. who knows what his future might hold?!

LAST NAME

while the kids' last name wasn't chosen by us, it too has special meaning and a great heritage. i love it because it gives them both the all-important "double letter" that i love in names (two c's). even more importantly it should be a reminder of family that loves and prays for them daily.

on a side note, i love both of their birthdays almost as much as their names. adelaide was born on her grandfather jim's 50th birthday. and graham holds the title of the only december baby out of more than 50 extended family members on each side of our family.

"A GOOD NAME IS MORE DESIRABLE THAN GREAT RICHES;

TO BE ESTEEMED IS BETTER THAN SILVER OR GOLD."

-Proverbs 22:1