what's in a name?

The story of Olivia’s name is pretty special, so I figured it was worth sharing on my blog.

 Throughout our relationship, Dustin and I had talked multiple times about names we loved for our kids in the future; we knew we wanted a big family some day and we had a list of all our favorite names for boys and girls. When we found out we were expecting last October, we narrowed it down to our two favorites - one for a boy, one for a girl.

We both agreed on finding out the gender at 20 weeks. I’d been having lots of dreams about a girl so we were thinking and hoping it was a girl, but we really had no idea. We had told our families the names we had chosen for both a boy and a girl early on in our pregnancy, but we decided we wanted to keep the gender to ourselves for a few weeks. Pregnancy is a very personal, intimate experience and especially for my first pregnancy, Dustin and I wanted to be able to enjoy parts of it together privately before anyone else shared in the news with us.

My 20-week Ultrasound was scheduled about a week before my 23rd birthday, on Friday January 18 at 1:30pm.  Our parents knew we were finding out the gender that day but they also knew we wouldn’t share the news for a few more weeks.

 My Mom and Dad were going on their first cruise the following week, so my Mom was at Target in Plymouth (a target she had never been to before). She was purchasing seasick pills at the pharmacy for my dad (something she had never purchased before). It was about 2pm when we found out that we were having a little girl and we were both so thrilled. As my Mom waited in line at the pharmacy (knowing we had just found out but weren’t revealing it yet), she prayed for a sign of the gender. She knew we had chosen the name “Olivia Beatrice” if it was a girl.

 We just loved the name Olivia and didn’t know anyone with that name so we settled on that for her first name early in the pregnancy. Her middle name, Beatrice, is after my Grandma Bea, who I grew up living with until I was 13 years old and who I am still very close to, 10 years later. Beatrice means “bringer of joy,” and she is definitely our little joy-bringer!

Moments after praying for a sign, my Mom looked up at the (physical) pharmacy sign and this is what she saw:

 She sent the photo to me immediately by text saying, “You don’t have to tell me the gender, but this is what I just saw.” All I sent back was a smiley face.

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Happy Wednesday!