abc....D!

For some reason it took me longer to feel settled on a name this time around. I think part of it had to do with my {still} indecisive nature, and the other part had to do with rather or not we wanted to choose a name that started with a D to continue our trend or just choose any name we liked instead. In the end, we decided to stick with our theme (and not just because I already bought a "D" for one of our stockings 2 years ago before we had any kids).

The two front-runners almost immediately were David and Daniel. Both men have incredible historical stories in the Scriptures, and we kept going back and forth between the two. Ultimately, we decided we liked the way David sounded better with his middle name, Robert. We also like the way David and Caleb sound together and (for the cheesy math person I am) it's fun that they both have 5 letters (I am not adding this to my "rules" for the next baby though because then that would be putting us even more in a box with choosing not only an E name but also a 5 letter name). David is a relatively common name, especially among people my age, but it isn't as common for babies (at least we hope).

David means beloved, and we pray our little man knows no matter what, that is what he is: loved by us and loved by God. We are so excited to welcome him into our family in 7 (or probably closer to 6) weeks. The David of the Bible has a fascinating story. He was a Shepherd, Slinger, Psalmist, Harpist, Poet, Tribesman, and King. He was the youngest of 8 brothers, but the one chosen by God. He was also one who knew what it was to fall greatly and then be redeemed.

One of our prayers for David is from a Psalm of David: "Surely goodness and lovingkindess will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." (Psalm 23:8) We pray that one day he would come to know and love Jesus.

His middle name will be Robert, after my Dad. I am so excited to give David a middle name after a man who means so much to me! We hope he lives up to his namesake. Robert means bright and shining. We pray our David Robert may be one whose knowledge of God's love makes him a bright and shining light to the dark world around him. We pray he would have a spirit of fearlessness: "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread?" (Psalm 27:1)

So there you have it: David Robert Hughes- our beloved bright little one.

Bryan was kind enough to recreate this picture my sweet friend Madeline had taken of Caleb

from David's 13 week ultrasound....can't believe that was 20 weeks ago!

A+B = C

Deciding a child's name feels like a momentous decision! I mean there are all these pieces of advice out there: pick a unique name, a family name, a common name, a name with meaning.

I am often extremely indecisive (to which Bryan and anyone in my family will nod their head yes) and so I decided to give myself some limitations. 

1) We wanted the name to start with a C. When doing all of the stationary for the wedding I would sign things A+B (for Ashley and Bryan) and I decided then it would be fun if when we had kids we  named them C,D, E, etc. 

2) We wanted the name to not be on the top ten most common names for the last couple of years. When my sweet Mom decided to name me Ashley she had never known an Ashley or taught an Ashley (she had only heard of the name on Happy Days) but apparently so did every other Mom in 1985 because growing up I always had at least one, and often two other Ashleys in my class. We just wanted our son to have a name that isn't the most common, but also not so weird (Apple, anyone?) that people are like, "what? How do you spell that?" for the rest of his life.

3) And probably most importantly, we wanted the name to have a great meaning- something we could pray over him. We didn't necessarily want it to be from the Bible, but just wanted to meaning to be cool. 

My sweet students knew we wanted a "C" name and even helped us with this amazing list of names on my board. The guys came up with some particularly interesting ones- Crimson Chin, Calculus, Cedric Willard (so he could be called C- Dub, something we always say at Cy- Woods).

The list of names my students provided

A name that almost became the forerunner immediately was Caleb. Out of all the "C" names we liked (Bryan was really pulling for Clark), this is the one with the sweetest meaning. Apparently, Caleb is a compound word in Hebrew- Col = all or whole and Lev  = heart. Therefore Caleb (Colev in Hebrew) means "whole hearted" or faithful. 

We love this because we are praying many things for our son, but the thing we long most of Him is that one day He would follow Jesus, that God, rich in His mercy would save Caleb and make his heart spiritually whole. We are also praying his heart would be physically whole as we found out recently mine is not. We actually go to the doctor tomorrow for a fetal echo (an ultrasound of his heart while he is inside of me...crazy they can do that!) to check out his heart's anatomy. We are also praying God would sustain my heart through out this pregnancy and delivery and that He would hold my heart together. I have had to see a high risk doctor and a cardiologist for regular check ups and monitoring of my valve. We are hoping and expecting God will take care of me and Caleb, but I have definitely dealt with a little fear when I think about the worst case scenario. 

His middle name was easier to decide for us. We really wanted to choose a family name and so we went with Paul. Paul is Bryan's middle name, his Dad's name and his Papaw's name as well. So Caleb Paul will be the 4th in line of Hughes men to carry the name Paul. We pray he would be as strong and hard working as the men before him.  Paul means "small" or "humble" and we pray that no matter how big Caleb is, he would always walk in humility and dependence upon God. 

Caleb and Paul are also men in the Bible. Caleb and Joshua were faithful spies and the only ones permitted to enter in the promised land. Caleb also remembers and reminds others of the promises of God (Joshua 14:6). And Paul is probably one of my favorite men from the Bible. His story is actually quite powerful if you have never read it. He was Saul, an extremely religious Jew, persecutor and murderer of Christians before encountering the Risen Lord in a very real way on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). He was forever changed by Christ- becoming Paul and was used in arguably the most mighty of ways to expand the Kingdom of God and advance the Gospel. He wrote most of the New Testament, was extremely bold and ultimately gave his life as Christ gave his.

So Caleb Paul, we pray you will be a whole-hearted, faithful man who humbly and boldly walks with God. We cannot wait to meet you! We love you baby boy.

ultrasound at 13 weeks; we can't wait to see you tomorrow at almost 22! :)