A little over a year ago I sent the following email to Michael:

I want to name her Ellie because God is my God and I pray that she would make Him hers too.  Everything about Him giving her to us for this time has reminded me over and over that His ways are not my ways and yet I can fully trust Him.

 

I want to name her Piper because it makes me think of heralding God's presence and love for us and her very existence being representative of that.  Paired with a middle name that would also be a continuation of the idea of heralding, announcing, shouting or making known in an obvious way some great attribute of God.

 

I want to name her Josie because God has truly added her to our family.  He used my "mistake" in calculating my cycle to turn our lives upside down and draw us closer to Him.  God is God and I am not.

 

I want to name her Joanna because God has shown me over and over again just how gracious He is to us.  And while He didn't give her to us when we asked (the 4 miscarriages) He surprised us with her when we had surrendered our desires over to Him and moved forward with Him in what we thought was His plan for our family. 

 

I want to name her Ruby because her life is so very precious just like the stone.

 

What are you thinking?...............

 

Moving forward!

 

I love you a lot.

Julie

 

We agonized.... is that too strong?........we painstakingly discussed and thought about what to name this little miracle baby for months.  It is no secret that naming these humans that God gave to us is hard.  Naming a child was a very romantic idea before we ever conceived one.  It looked fun and easy.  And yet, in the very end it started to become clearer on what each one was meant to be named. 

 

I am so happy with our choice of "Ellie Joy."  I can easily see her being Piper, Josie and Ruby.  And I wanted to share them in this way today because in a strange way they seem to be a part of her.  They describe a bit of how God made her and I am actually rather awestruck when I see how intimate the Lord is with us in areas we don't realize at the time. 

 

Does He really care what we name these children He gives to us?  I suspect that since we have complete free will to make decisions as best as we can He is okay with what ends up on their birth certificates.  BUT I see His fingerprints everywhere.  Ellie has qualities about her that still suite all of those name choices. 

 

Perhaps if we lived in London and were royalty her name would have been Ellie Joy Piper Josie Joanna Ruby Schneider.  :-) 

 

I'm so glad that I saw her face for the first time one year ago today.  It was a holy moment of seeing flesh to an incredible thing the Lord had done.  He didn't have to do it but He did.  There was no more wondering and what if's.  I'm so glad to be her momma and I just love her to pieces.