A Rose by Any Other Name

Baby names. Always a difficult thing for PreacherMan and I to agree on.

Boys names are not hard for us, we agree pretty quickly. And we've had a boys' name picked out for 12 years now. We choose the names based on their meaning and whether or not we like the sound. Now, the boys' name we've chosen may not "stick", but at least I know we don't have a hard time with them.

Girls' names are a whole other ball of wax. We really disagree on girls' names. I like ethereal, feminine sounding names and I don't care what their source is. I would love to name a girl Arwen, Galadriel or Raewyn... PreacherMan likes names like Nicole, Amy, etc.

I've been through and through every baby name book and several websites and just never hit on "the one". I always know it as soon as I hear it combined with its meaning.

Now, a little background. PreacherMan has always been the one that was terrified of having another baby. I've had to twist his arm mighty hard for the other babies from the third one on. Each time, he has seemed more and more resentful. He has been scared of the financial obligations and whether or not we could raise them properly. I was always the one saying, "God will provide. He hasn't let us down yet. We always have food and clothes and shelter. We've never been promised luxuries, and yet we have them. It will all be okay."

Well, after the miscarriage I had last December, he kept saying "no" to another try at a baby. He said it was not a good time. I wanted a baby so desperately, but did not want a baby that would make him angry or resentful. I wanted him to want it too.

Then a missionary couple came to our church. The husband discussed his financial fears and how they had a huge debt from his schooling that had to be paid off before he would be allowed to leave on a mission. He discussed how he didn't know how he would ever financially support his family on his small salary. Then, a man he had worked with previously, paid off his debt in full. What an inspiration!

And this spoke directly to PreacherMan's heart. A week later, we were out to dinner and he announced he wanted another baby. That his heart had changed and he felt strong faith that God would provide for us and for our children, and for another baby.

Then I got pregnant before we had planned. It was not our choice that brought this baby to us. So, this morning, looking through the baby name book, I found:
Josephine. It means, "God will increase". Whoa. It is so incredibly perfect, and we like the sound. It fits with our other girl names, and it's short form "Josey" does too. I think we've got it!

Her middle name would be Faith. Because I believe it was PreacherMan's faith that brought our increase.