The Name.

The questions you get when you are pregnant are:
When are you due?
What are you having?
Did you swallow a watermelon seed?  (love the southern people)
What is the name?

The last question is the trickiest one for me, for a couple of reasons. 
1) I would love to say that Reed and I have a name picked out.. but we do not.  We are no where close to having one. 
2) For anyone that knows me, keeping secrets (that are exciting secrets) are REALLY hard for me to do.  Reed and I want to keep it to ourselves until baby girl is here, because of the wisdom of others (people can give you their unwanted opinions).

Ever since I was a little girl and started to write in a journal, I left myself notes of what to do when I get older and how to be when I become a parent.  (A little silly, I just didn't want to forget)  In some of those notes (like what to be when I grow up) and to do lists, I had a running list of boy and girl names for my kids. 

When you get married, you start to compare notes, and they can be different.  For example, one name from my original list that I used to love is:  Olivia, and call her Livy.  However, Reed and his twin had many a lady friend, and that name was marred, so I can no longer use it.  Also when you get married, you get a new last name, that may not fit with some of the first/middle names you had on your original list.  "Moore" is a tricky one.  For example, another name I like is Eden.. and apparently it doesn't work with Moore.  Eden Moore.. sounds like "eatin' more". We don't want our kids to be made fun of because of their name.

Reed's suggestions so far:
Reedina Moore
Love Moore

Not only will our child have this name when they are a kid, but when they are applying for colleges and jobs. We don't want their application to get looked over, because their name is Love Moore.

I know that is extreme, but we aren't taking the name thing lightly.  We are both on the same page, because the meaning is really important to us.  We want our daughter to know the Lord deeply, and for her to live life in and through Him.  We want her name to speak over her, who God has made her to be. 

I read this excerpt in the book I am reading, Ann Voskamp's "One Thousand Gifts" and found it very much in sync with my heart as we seek a name for our child:

"Now in the Bible a name... reveals the very essence of a thing, or rather its essence as God's gift.. To name a thing is to manifest the meaning and value God gave it, to know it as coming from God and to know its place and function within the cosmos created by god.  To name a thing, in other words, is to bless God for it and in it."
Alexander Schmemann "For the Life of the World:  Sacraments and Orthodoxy"


We look at baby name lists online and at different books, but it is just overwhelming.  Right now, we are trusting that God is going to guide us in this and speak to us.  We trust that this is His baby and that He has a purpose for her.  How exciting!