She shall be called…

SHELBY KAITLYN

Choosing the name of your son, or daughter is so exciting, but yet so humbling. It’s a privilege and honor. It’s an opportunity to speak life and purpose over them every time they are called by their name. For us, names are so significant and meaningful. For in Isaiah 49:1 its says, “The Lord called me before my birth; from within the womb He called me by name.” How powerful, loving and special is that! As we are given another chance to name a child, both Ryan and I desire for her name to be something of significant and speak of all the promises that are in store for her.

As I’ve prayed for this little one over the past several months, I’ve been reminded of 2 scriptures often (even before we knew the gender). I’ve been praying the characteristics of these verses for our baby…that this is who he or she will be.

The first being Jeremiah 17:7-8 (amplified) [Most] blessed is the man who believes in, trusts in, and relies on the Lord, and whose hope and confidence the Lord is.⁸For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters that spreads out its roots by the river; and it shall not see and fear when heat comes; but its leaf shall be green. It shall not be anxious and full of care in the year of drought, nor shall it cease yielding fruit.

The second being Matthew 5:8 (amplified)Blessed (happy, enviably fortunate, and spiritually prosperous--possessing the happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His grace, regardless of their outward conditions) are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!

Before we knew we we’re pregnant Ryan and I would talk about names, both boy and girl names. We would even share names with one another that we heard or thought about. As we talked about expanding our little family we would also find ourselves thinking about names.  We never really came up with too many, especially on the boy side. However, the one name that we both really loved and kept talking about was the name Shelby.

From the beginning of this pregnancy, we both felt like we were having a little girl. At week 16 we went for our ultra sound and our thoughts were confirmed as the ultra sound tech said, “It’s a girl!”. As I laid there looking at her on the little ultrasound screen, I said to myself, “that’s our little Shelby!” Ryan had a similar thought that morning when he woke up. He thought, “It’s a girl! and It’s Shelby!” However, it was until after the ultra sound appointment that we shared our thoughts with each other. 

Once we found out we were having a girl, we discussed names more seriously. We started reading our little name books, made list of names, and tried out different combinations of names. But no matter how much we discussed it, we kept coming back to Shelby. We were drawn to it. There were days when I just knew her name was to be Shelby. I can’t really explain it, just  a strong confident and resolve feeling I felt in my heart.

Kaitlyn was another name that spoke to us. We liked the sound of it. It was strong, but sweet. We coupled it with Shelby and surprisingly enough, liked what we heard—Shelby Kaitlyn.

During this time, we had not shared any of our ideas with anyone. We were just kept to ourselves and praying.

One day my mom calls and says, “I made a list of some names. Let me read them to you!”. The first name on her list—SHELBY!  I still didn't say anything as she read through the list, but found it very exciting that she had the same name.

As we researched the meaning of Shelby Kaitlyn we became more assured that this is our little girl’s name. Shelby is English and means, willow (the tree) from the ledge estate. A place where willows grow, a shelter. Kaitlyn is Irish and means pure…both of which echo the 2 verses from above.

So with all of that we have decided to call our little girl, Shelby Kaitlyn! We are so encouraged and overjoyed at this new blessing and can’t wait to meet  her face to face. 

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notes: I know this has been a very long post. Thanks for sticking around. These blog entries on our pregnancy have 2 purposes: 1-for us to share this experience with our family and friends. 2-for Shelby. I’m making a scrapbook of the pregnancy for her and will now be able to take these post and place them in her scrapbook.

pictures: The pictures above are me at 27 weeks.