What's in a Name?

I can vividly remember when we chose Evelyn Joy's name. Both Doug and I were in tears.. happy tears.. it was just "the" name for our sweet girl. No doubt, no second guessing. Evelyn means "Gives life". Gives life Joy.... she has certainly done that over the past almost 3 years!

For some reason this time around picking a name for our son has been SO hard!! It's not that Doug and I are disagreeing on names.. in fact we usually like and dislike the same ones. Finding the "one" just hasn't happened. Since Evelyn had been calling her baby brother "Bill" for the past, oh, 3 months, I was eager to pick a name so she could put that to rest. :) But nothin'. I was just praying for God to just reveal the perfect name.. more happy tears, etc. Again, nothin'.

We started getting serious about picking a few weeks ago. After careful thought and consideration.. we narrowed it to two. We both at that point knew what we were to name our son. No tears, just complete agreement and contentment. So.. after one last phone call to friends who have a older son with the same name to make sure it was okay with them (I wanted to be sensitive to that)... it was decided.

So.. without further adieu.. in a few weeks we will be so excited to meet our son:


Matthew: "Gift from God"
Donald: My amazing dad's name.. ever since he died I knew if I had a son he would have this as his middle name. It is also the name of Doug's brother, which is cool, too!

Of course, I will still want to see his face when he is born to make sure Matthew fits him, but for now we have a name. Evelyn has been very accepting of the name and it is SO cute when she calls his by his complete name. "Good Morning Matthew Donald Morris!", she will say to my belly in the morning. Precious! I think having a name has made her more excited for his arrival as well.

We invite you to pray with us for MATTHEW.. that he would continue to thrive as he prepares to make his entrance into this world in about 4 weeks. We pray he leads a long and healthy life and that he would be a man after God's own heart.

We are already so in love with our boy!!


FYI... I am NOT posting a link to this on my facebook account or announcing his name there. It's not a secret, but I wanted to post it here first AND I usually don't want to use my kids names on facebook.. just their initial. Just for privacy sake, I guess. So enjoy being one of the chosen few who know his name!! :) And thanks for reading my blog!