What's in a Name?

we are currently recovering from our fabulous church retreat.  my photographer chris, is working on getting my pictures to me (just kidding chris, whenever you are ready;)  lots of FUN pics to come.  mark and i are also gearing up for a romantic get-a-way. excited hardly describes it.

so on to today.  when mark and i started picking names for the kids it was actually very easy.  katherine was a name i had loved forever.  my sister graciously let me have it if i promised i would not use abigail.i agreed. funny though, she does not have an abigail... ok, so katherine came b/c i loved it, and suzanne because it is my middle name.

julia came from a conversation with andrew and michelle vincent. i was 32 weeks along and we did not know what we were having. i was convinced it was a boy so a girl name was unnecessary.  andrew and michelle insisted we come up with a girl name. so one night on the glorious beach we played the name game. i can't remember if it was andrew or michelle who said, "julia" but when they said it, it was over... we were in love!  waitz is her middle name which is mark' mom, jere's, maiden name.

when we were pregnant with our third, mark and i made a deal if it was a girl he got to name her.  AND it was a girl.  mark picked lucy, which I LOVE. we both liked grace but "lucy grace" was way too southern for us. so we went with the greek word for grace which is "charis" but we liked to spell it "kharis".

and then anderson.  anderson is my dad's mom's maiden name. the anderson family LOVES being a family. it is a priority for them, and i appreciate it that very much. joshua, is his middle name for obvious reasons.

but more then picking out the kids names, i always prayed that the Lord would give me a one sentence ( you can't remember a lot when you are pregnant :) prayer to pray for my babies while they were in the womb.  not a prayer about their gender, health, safety, success, or happiness in life, but a prayer about their spiritual condition. He never failed to give me that prayer. it is SUCH a blessing to remember that prayer and see how it is coming to fruition in the kids lives.

for katie it was, "that she may be madly in love with her Savior!" 
for julia it was, "that she would pursue Truth with passion!"
for lucy it was, "that she would bring and spread the JOY of the gospel!"
for anderson it was, "that he would bravely go!"

now, remember i didn't know the sex OR anything about my babies while i prayed this prayer over and over. 

katie is a lover in all things!
julia does EVERYTHING with conviction and passion, seeking truth and Truth.
lucy is a JOY, and makes everyone smile wherever she goes.
anderson is always on the go and never looking back.

i can not wait to see how my Jesus works in my kids lives to glorify Himself!!
~s