She Has a Name!

Thanks for playing along and sharing your favorites in our name game. It's been interesting to see what everyone thinks. But I want to know - who are the 4 of you who voted for Shanaynay?!?!?! Eh hem. Make yourselves known ;-)

Well, we finally made our own decision on a name for Nathan's sister!

Shanaynay is pretty obviously a no... but it's been Jacob's joke since day one. And she's managed to get that nickname already. Hopefully that will end when she arrives :)

Jacob's favs have been Katherine & Elizabeth... I don't not like those names. They just don't seem to quite fit.

My favs have been Danielle & Grace Helen. Jacob's not a fan of Danielle. And Grace Helen has been my pick for almost 10 years... well before the name Grace was so over-popularized. So I thought we could make her name Helen Grace... but that sounds too old fashioned and grown-up. The nickname Ellie came to mind... but we agreed that it doesn't really fit our family. And, finally, it dawned on me that the name Grace would just be cruel to our daughter - chances are she'll inherit at least a little bit of my clutziness... Her name doesn't need to highlight her lack of gracefulness, if, in fact, she ends up like me.

Madison isn't a favorite of mine... but when I saw it spelled Maddison, I liked it - after my late grandfather, Addison. But, again, it just doesn't quite fit at this moment.

So that leaves... you guessed it:

Faith Helen Wuenschel is our daughter's name! She has a name! Yay!

Our lives, during this pregnancy, have been filled with stresses from just about every possible angle. With each new challenge, we've had to learn to trust and have faith in God on a new level; that He would provide whatever it was that we needed at that moment. He never fails; and we know He never will. But that hasn't stopped Him from growing our faith while simutaneously growing our little girl, Faith. And with the arrival of Faith, we'll be learning to trust Him all the more!

The name Helen comes from my middle name. It means "light" and is the name shared by important women in every generation on both my mother's & father's sides of the family. And after we picked it, I learned it's also the name of Jacob's great-grandmother, as well.

Our hope and prayer for Faith is that she grows up strong, healthy and with the knowledge & love of Christ. That she embodies a faith in Christ that guides her throughout her life; and that she is a light, pointing the way to the Lord, to everyone she encounters.