What's in a name?

Much of our culture has a serious identity crisis, especially among people my age and younger.  They don't know where they come from in relation to their family or national history.  As a rule, having a past sheds light and purpose on your future.  It helps you see previous mistakes and take actions to avoid those in the future.  It allows you to see the purpose and direction of your forefathers, and then decide if you want to follow that or improve upon it.  It gives you a place in general, a context if you will, for the events going on around you and for the direction of your life.  You can see where you came from and why you are the way you are when you have the whole history of your family, nation, and preferably world, as context.

Without this context we have a generation who moves through life without much purpose, essentially lost.  I don't just mean spiritually lost, although that certainly does contribute greatly to context of life.  I mean these young people around me don't have a purpose, a calling for their life.  They mostly jump from one form of entertainment to another.  The reason they are in school is to get a degree, which will get them a job, which will get them better forms of entertainment.   Ask a young person sometime what their goal is and it will boil down to something like this.  Many of them have learned from their parents, or society, to push through most of life as fast as possible to get to retirement so they can enjoy themselves.  (Obviously this isn't everyone, and I don't have anything against retirement, but this is still the majority of young people I meet.)  These are the same people who daily vote away their freedoms and much of their income either because they assume it will make life easier or safer, or because they don't have the motivation to understand what they are doing.

Right now some of you are thinking I really need a pick-me-up and what on earth this has to do with names.  There's a purpose, I promise I'm not just being a Debbie Downer!

Chris and I have seen this tendency and don't want to repeat it in ourselves or our children.  We want to provide our children with as much history about their family, nation and world as possible.  We want to help them find significance and purpose in this life.  Obviously this will mostly be accomplished through their education, but we think it can begin with something more basic than that - their name.

Names are traditionally very important.  It is forever the title you as a person will be identified with.  Honoring the family name has been a goal of girls and boys alike for generations.  What you do reflects on you upbringing and family history.  In Biblical history, names always had a significance associated with them, often relevant to the events at hand.   Major life-changing events called for a name change (we see this with Abraham, Sarah, Jacob and many others).  We see name changes like this in many other cultures as well.

Sadly, this seems to have gone to the wayside in conjunction with life context.  This is evident in some recent and widely publicized child names, like 'Apple' (I'm sure you can think of many others!).

So then what names are we considering, you may ask?  Get ready, you may consider them a doozy, but at least now you have 'context' for our choices!  :)

For a girl we are considering Evelyn Hope.  Evelyn was my grandmother's name.  She had a huge impact on my life.  She effortlessly demonstrated hospitality to all her guests, made my sister and I feel important and took time to take us along and teach us what she could.  She was also an amazing Christian woman.  I saw her minister to anyone who was in need, older people in our community, poor and dirty 'Rainbow Children' that no one else wanted anything to do with and ladies in prison just to name a few.  She followed and respected her husband, becoming an exceptional example of what a lasting marriage looks like (they were married almost 60 years when she died).  For these and many other reasons, I would want to name our daughter Evelyn.  If she becomes half the woman of God her great-grandmother was, she will be beautiful indeed!  

We like the middle name of 'Hope' for two reasons.  One, we have great hope for the future.  In spite of my previous rant and concerns, we are seeing changes in the church and community around us that are promising, and we have great hope for what the Lord will do with these changes.  'Hope' is also to help us remember where our hope should lie - in the Lord.  Even if the future doesn't become as bright as we expect, that's okay.  We have a better and more eternal hope!

That's actually the more acceptable name, are you ready for the doozy?!?  Just remember, I don't make fun of your names... well not too much! :)

For a boy we are considering Ebenezer Jude.  I know, I know, the first thing you think of is Ebenezer Scrooge!  Remember the end of that story though?  He was a changed man!  Anyway...  Ebenezer means 'stone of help' specifically referring to the stone Samuel erected to honor/remember the help of God in an important victory over the Philistines (1 Samuel 7).  Ebenezer is also important in one of our favorite hymns 'Come Thou Fount'.  We desire to acknowledge that it is by God's help that we have come this far and by His help that we plan to continue forward.  We really feel this is true.  During our five years of being married with both of us still being in school we have had the privilege of seeing God's tangible provision time and time again.  We really feel that it is 'by Thy help I'm come, and I hope by Thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home' ('Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing').  

Jude refers to the apostle Jude, who also wrote the epistle of Jude.  We feel that the book of Jude is a timely reminder for the season we are in.  In Jude we find encouragement to stand strong in Christ and contend for the faith during a time when the church is in danger both from within and without.  With the memory of what God has done in our past and the challenge to stand strong in the present, we feel this name will give our son purpose and hope as he faces the future.

Before you ask, yes we are open to nicknames and even have some possibilities for both names already in mind.  Also, if our children find it easier later in life, we are totally fine with them going by their middle names.  Although it may be unusual, we feel strongly that naming with a purpose is important, and I am quite satisfied with our options.

Now we just need to find out which one we are going to get to use!  Stay tuned, because tomorrow we get to find out if we are having a boy or girl and I hope to let you know ASAP!

Little tastes of God's tangible provision!

Providing for our new little one is never far from our mind, especially now that it is more evident I am pregnant.  We have done extensive planning on how to fit necessary items into our small apartment, and figuring out what items really are essential on top of that planning!  There are several items that people often buy when they have a room that can be totally dedicated to baby that we are going to have to modify a bit.  For example, many ladies I know are able to have a dresser and a changing table, while we are hoping to use the top of our baby's dresser as the changing table and eliminate one of the pieces of furniture in that room. 

While I have always been confident that God will provide, I always expected that provision to be in the form of showers and forgot all about hand-me-downs!  We are blessed to be in a church with lots of young families and therefore lots of potential hand-me-downs.  Sadly, one of the families is going to be moving out of the country soon and in doing so there a parring down a lot of their belongings.  We have been one of several benefactors of this process!  

During my planning I always thought a co-sleeper would be nice to make nursing and feeding through the night easier, but as it wasn't one of our completely necessary items I wasn't planning on it.  But this family offered me theirs since their baby has almost out-grown its usefulness!  It was such an encouragement to me that God really provides, and sometimes for your wants, not just your needs!

So here is the newest piece of furniture we received!  It is kind of like a bassinet but made so that you can reach the baby while still in bed!  It straps around the mattress with clips so there is no danger of the baby rolling out the more open side. 

One side is lower to make getting baby easier.

Plus it is a nice brown which will go with either boy or girl colors!  We are so thankful and excited about our gift!

Straps will go under the mattress and attach here!

 

Flowers!

When we got back from Mom and Dad's I experienced some extra home sickness.  These sunflowers reminded me of their garden so Chris got them for me!  In combination with the spray roses they have brought a lot of cheer into our first week back at school!

Grand Getaway: Part 5

The last stop on our adventure was a detour on the drive home.  We stopped in South Dakota at the 1880's town.  We had briefly visited this attraction on a previous trip and thought it looked fun so we scheduled time for it on this adventure, dress up included!

Banana in jail!

"He's got a gun!"

Our men!

I love my parents! They jump right in with the rest of us!

Robbing the hotel!

The thiefs!

Some very mellow mules took us for a ride!

Settlers looking West...

Poor Mom, no one had her bail!

Pretty good family photo!

Watch out!

My favorite plank of Dad's!

Out of order, but still fun!

Rocking Teddy quote!

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man in the arena; whose face is marred by dust, sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

                                                ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Fun Stuff From Camp

Here are some fun photos from around the campsite that I missed in previous posts!

Beth's Wilderness Beauty Salon

Waiting on Breakfast...

The Kitchen!

Our video documenter!

Mmmm Pancakes!

Our morning mountain view!

Grand Getaway: Part 4

Day five was spent around camp and exploring some of the lodges, we also made a stop at the discovery cabin for Hannah!  Lake MacDonald lodge is one of my parents' favorites because of its huge fireplace and because it has some of the best food in the park.  I fell in love with their hanging baskets and window boxes!  While we were there Hannah also got us our first piece of baby clothing, a bib that says 'I want S'more!' and has 'Glacier National Park' underneath.  It was great!  To top it all off, Bubba nearly made me cry when he asked me to help him pick out a beautiful mug for Mom, spending a good deal of his hard earned money in the process.  That night Beth, Devin, Chris and I watched the kids so Dad could take Mom back to the lodge for a surprise anniversary dinner!  Oh did I mention we got ice cream?! It was a good day!

A very big paw print found outside the park!

A flannel board masterpiece!

GAH! I wish I could grow these! I think its the cool nights that makes them so big!

A bee butt!

Our new bib!

Day six was our last big day at the campsite, so it called for another hike!  Chris, Dad and the big kids went on another long hike with lots of elevation change, but in an area none of them had been to before.  Mom, myself and the rest of us went exploring in a different park of the park!  Chris and the guys did part of the Piegon Pass hike, but not the whole thing since there had been some bear attacks further up before we arrived.

Apparently some rock climbing was in order!

And some planking!

Fortunately no bears were seen on this hike!  The guys took the shuttle back to camp and actually beat us home and had supper started when we got there!

Two Medicine Lake

 How do you get these smiles? You tell a joke!  The guy who took our picture told us this one.


"What do you call a bear with no teeth?"


"A Gummy Bear!"

Lupine!

 My acrobats enjoyed the challenge of logs across a shallow creek, especially when Mom said they didn't have to worry about getting wet!

19 weeks and still going strong!

OK, maybe not that strong!  I love the rockers at East Glacier Lodge!

The flower gardens at East Glacier are awesome too!

After a full day it was time to get ready for the drive in the morning and take our farewell walks.  Chris and I took one more along Avalanche Creek.

Big Bunny! We think it was a snow hare!

Never a dull moment with my hubby!

He's gonna pop!

Farewell Glacier! Until next time!