Something special happened a couple weeks ago: my daughter was born! She came a couple weeks early due to some sudden complications, but we are so glad she’s here and that she’s okay. She and Evelyn are both doing well now.
I’ve written before about the journey of faith that Evelyn and I went through with our desires to have children. Our need for faith to accept uncertainty hasn’t diminished—scary complications in the delivery process required us to place our faith in God even more firmly. Gratefully, He intervened in some miraculous ways, and provided protection and safety for both my wife and our daughter.
For the duration of the pregnancy, people would ask us if we had picked a name yet, but we struggled to find one that (a) we both liked and (b) worked well in English and Spanish. For the last month or so of the pregnancy I would jokingly tell people that we had everything we needed except the name. But as we reviewed our list of possible names, one name stood out: Isabelle. The name comes from the Spanish Isabel, which was derived from the English Elisabeth, which in turn comes from the Hebrew Elisheva, meaning “My God is my oath.”
This seemed well-suited for a daughter whose conception and now safe delivery were merciful and tender blessings to us from a loving God. Even when faced with uncertainty—in our fertility journey, in the arduous pregnancy, and in the tumultuous delivery—we found strength in the “oaths” or promises God had made to us as part of our covenants with Him, especially the promise that our family would be eternal no matter what happened in this life.
(We finalized the name as Isabella instead of Isabelle because we liked the cadence more, and preferred the diminutive form of “Bella” over “Belle,” but the name’s origin is the same.)
Welcome to the world, Isabella. It’s a beautiful place. I can’t wait to see the impact you have on it—you’ve changed my world so much already. ❤️
Comments
0 comments
0 replies