What's in a name?

I walk by this board 50 times a day. It's the combined list of names the family likes for the children we are planning to adopt. Since we didn't know for a very long time whether or not it would be boys, girls, or one of each...we played it safe. We also listed some African names that have special meanings to us.

Since finding out about our prospective twin girls we have been discussing names more than I care to admit. The Princess has a decided idea about what she wants to call little sisters, but this gave us as parents a great opportunity to talk about what is in a name. Biblically, there is much to say. Do you have any idea how many times God changed the names of people in the Bible? Why he did it?  I mean, Abram and Abraham aren't that different as well as the fact that Sarai and Sarah are close. Jacob to Israel and Simon to Peter are pretty big jumps, but all have a special meaning and reason why.

When we first started discussing adopting children we began discussing names. After all, if we adopted children whose parents named them and then were tragically killed...what right had we to change that name? But what if they were abandoned as an infant and someone randomly named them in order to keep up with them? There is much to consider when it comes to names. If you doubt me...just Google "baby names" and see what you get.

We concluded several things, one was this. Sometimes God changed names to speak blessing into someone's life. "This is what you'll be" sort of thing. Not necessarily what you ARE, but what you will BECOME. "These are the plans I have for you." That is definitely on of the reasons we gave our biological children their names, why would it be different with adopted children? Another thing we chose to do was to find out as much as we could about the children we would adopt. Sometimes that is not possible. In our case, we know the family situation. Early on, we decided that if parents gave these babies names we would do our best to keep them. (I mean, let's be realistic...you know our last name...would you want your four or five syllable first name to go with that? No offense to my in-laws, of course, because my maiden name isn't much better. Just a reality.) But that we would also give them names of our choosing.

So that's where we are. Naming babies. Counting down the days until we hold them close and say "I love you." Oh. *sigh* come quickly, little ones. We have much love to give, but only because of the One who named you before there was time.