How the girls got their names.

Naming two people is incredibly difficult. Especially at the same time. I mean, really, how difficult!! We had two names when would found out we were expecting. A boy name, a girl name. And seriously, that's all you need, right?!? But God had other plans and so we began the search for a second girl name. A name that we ( mostly I because I was the one who wanted it so badly from the beginning...) would like equally as the first.

So lets start with Baby B.  Because, bless her heart, alphabetically and just because of where she's located in my womb seems always to be discussed second.  Yet from now on she will be called Tabitha Lorien. I think, now that we've fully decided on her name I find it even more perfect for her. She is the smallest of the twins, she's living and trying to grow in a tiny spot. Seems pretty difficult and possibly even impossible. However, I do actually believe, now that we've settled on it, that her name was decided before hand. ( I read Isaiah 49 early on in this pregnancy and now I am reminded of verse 1...Before I was born the Lord called me, while I was in my mother's womb he recorded my name.) 

Tabitha Lorien. The name Tabitha has several special meanings to us. First and foremost, Tabitha in the Bible ( Acts 9:36-43) was a disciple of the Lord's who was always doing good and serving those around her. However, she got very sick and died. After she died all those that loved her and had been the recipients of all that she had done in life, told Peter, Jesus's disciple, all about her. Peter then went up to the room in which her dead body had been laid out. He said, "Tabitha, get up." and she did!! She was raised from the dead, and because of this amazing act, many believed in the Lord.

 I think because, our own little Tabitha is so small, and has seemingly so much going against her in these early days of her life, it is our prayer that the Lord would indeed bring her back, even from death, so that He might be glorified, and that many would believe in Him. And then in her life, we pray that she would have a servant heart just as her biblical namesake and her current namesake, our friend Tabitha Trott.  Tabitha and I have been friends for a long time, and she is one of those people who is so incredibly solid. So incredibly faithful, that I know with all my heart that she will be the same person, serving the Lord, giving her life to Him, throughout all my children's lives. And so, I know that our little Tabitha will have a good example to look up to in how to be servant minded, in how to be a disciple of the Lord.

As for her middle name. We make no apologies for its nerdiness. It indeed, comes from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. It is the shortened name of Lothlorien, the land of the elves. Yet, in all my years of reading these books the passages describing Lorien have had such great significance. When you read about it, especially in the context of a story of Struggle of good vs. evil, in a world on the brink of war, it is a perfect picture of heaven.

"A light was upon it for which his language had no name. All that he saw was shapely , but the shapes seemed at once clear cut, as if they had been first conceived and drawn at the uncovering of his eyes, and ancient as if they had endured forever. He saw no color but those he knew, gold and white and blue and green, but they were fresh and poignant, as if he had at that moment first perceived them and made for them names new and wonderful. In winter here no heart could mourn for summer or for spring. No blemish or sickness or deformity could be seen in anything that grew upon the earth. On the land of Lorien there was no stain." 


The world is indeed full of peril and in the it there are many dark places, but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, Lorien grows perhaps the greater." 

We pray that our daughters life would always be grounded in something much greater than herself, that she would always know that there is something much more wonderful to fight for, and to look forward to....that we have our own, even more glorious Lorien to look forward to. 


And then to Baby A...her name came to me while Brett was deployed and I was living at Fort Lewis. It came so shockingly that I had no doubt in my mind that I would have a daughter one day. Because I already knew her name. Priscilla Beth. Priscilla is another New Testament character whom we love. Priscilla and her husband Aquila are mentioned quite a few times in the Bible, and they show much about her character. She and her husband worked along side the apostle Paul and even risked their lives to save him.  But I think my favorite passage is when they take this guy Apollos aside, who'd been teaching about the coming Messiah, and explained to him all about Jesus. Afterward Apollos became a huge asset to the early church in spreading the Good News. Whether it was hosting a church in her home, teaching, working or just encouraging Priscilla was always helping to strengthen her fellow believers. We pray that our own little Priscilla would have the Gospel of Christ written on her life in such a way that she too, would find a multitude of ways to help bring Life to others. May she be a teacher and a servant, and may she be an encouragement to others when they are in need. 
Her middle name also has great significance to us because it speaks of two of the most important women in our lives, our own mothers. My mom, Leabeth and Brett's mom, Mary Elizabeth are part of the very foundation of our own spiritual lives. ( Not to mention physical!) We are so grateful for the sacrifices they have made to follow the Lord's calling in their own lives. It has been a great example to us. We are so grateful for the prayers that they have prayed for us. It has been the nourishment of our lives. And we pray that our own little daughter would one day grow into a woman who can reflect even a little of her grandmothers. They are both women who she can proudly look to for guidance and council. 

Well, there you have it! Our little girls, Priscilla and Tabitha. We cannot wait to meet them and we pray for them by name even now.