Rising Joy

God gives me a child's name long before he gives me the child. This seems to be a trend in my life. Before we were even attempting pregnancy with Deacon we knew his name. We had a girl name picked out too, but it was not one that I am or was crazy about. With Levi, his name came to me and you can see this post from Levi's blog to read more about how his name was used to confirm that he was OURS and only ours. It was amazing. We had trouble picking a girl name for his adoption but since we were pretty sure that our "either" request was going to bring a boy, we didn't stress on it too much. We had talked about one a lot though.

Well, now I find myself with a name and a great story behind the name, but I do not know who this person is or will be or if she will ever be part of our family. Here's the story.

As I mentioned, girl names have always been a struggle. We really want to focus on the meaning of a name as well as to like how it sounds. The only name we had agreed on if Levi had been a boy was "Aliyah". I wasn't really nuts about the meaning as it just means "rising". Not all that spectacular in my opinion.

While we were in Addis picking up Levi, we met a sweet girl named Meti. She is now home with her family and they gave this precious girl the middle name of "Joy". Boy is she!! She just oozed joy. I was so impressed by this little girl that if she had not already been spoken for, I would have begun the paperwork as soon as the plane touched down in the US. I also have a friend from college who's middle name is "Joy" and she too is a blessing from above. She has always been that friend to me that could tell me the straight truth and I would not take offense. She was edifying and full of grace. She too, oozed JOY! Because of her, I have always thought about using the middle name "Joy" for a girl, but then when I heard that Meti was also being given the middle name "Joy" it was like God said..."Here's your sign!" :) I'm a little slow, so sometimes He has to talk LOUD.

So, if you couple the name Aliyah with Joy you get "Rising Joy". That is a meaning I can relate to and one that I would be excited to pass on to our little girl.

If you are reading this, please pray with us that we would have clear direction about if and when a daughter will enter our family. Our hearts are open, but there are a few things in our way.
Here's how to pray...

1. That IF we are to adopt again, we would know from WHERE and WHEN? Our hearts are in Ethiopia, but I am becoming more and more open to domestic. We've also always considered China, but with the way things go there I don't know if that is wise.

2. That our personal finances would fall into place. We are still recovering from this adoption and so another international adoption would be a year or two off. If China were the place though, it would be wise to get moving NOW as the wait is close to 5 years.

3. That IF we are to adopt, that either I would be able to quit my job and be home full-time (this means Chris needs to make more money and have insurance) or that we would find alternate child-care (Like the in-laws moving home...). I don't want to ask my parents to keep children all through their retirement (and they've said that 2 is their limit). They need time to be together and do the things they so deserve to do. I will save them for overnights and conference trips. :)

If you are reading this right now, it's because I let you know about it and consider you a friend and confidant. This is not something that I want to get "obsessed" over right now. There is too much to enjoy in the life I have now to wish it away for another. But, it is something that I think about and wonder. So, this blog will be my outlet and if you want to keep up with it, find info here.