What's In A Name

Around our house we think names are important. We have tried to give our children names that have some good meaning to them. Not as good as my friend Tamarah, who has got naming her children down as an art. For instance her newest little one has been duly name Evia Mira (I am sure I butchered the spelling there) which means "My Father God Illuminates." How cool is that? Anyway... we have been thinking about William and Melissa's names for seven months now. Now keep in mind that William and Melissa are not names that we would have chosen (not that they are bad names, just not names we would have picked) so we have had a difficult time coming up with middle names for them. For William we have decided on William Seth.

Now Melissa is another story. In Uganda no one called her Melissa, everyone called her Marissa. We are pretty sure this was a language thing. For a lot of words they exchanged the L for an R. For example, while I was in the hospital the nurse kept asking me if I was "Catheric." It took me a few minutes to figure out that she was wanting to know if I was Catholic. Now please keep in mind that I am no linguist, so I could be wrong about this. At any rate, she still does not respond right away to Melissa, but will respond to Marissa. We have been wrestling with this for a few weeks now. We agreed not to change their names, something we agree with totally. So we have gone back and forth between calling her Melissa or Marissa. Truthfully, calling her Marissa just makes more sense to us, because that is what she is most used to. We are not used to it, after all we have been calling her Melissa since December, but she is. So officially she is now Marissa Elianna. Still not a name we would have chosen, but good nonetheless.

On that note, I am thinking my blog needs a new name too. This is no longer about bringing our two pearls home, but is about our life as a family of seven, seeking to serve and glorify our Savior. So, I am on the hunt for a new and meaningful name, for this oh so public journal. Any suggestions????