Fully Funded and a Promise Kept

YOU DID IT!!! You have each played a HUGE role in helping us get J home! Whether you contributed $5, $10, $100 or more, each of you helped and each dollar was crucial. So, too were the prayers I know many of you were offering up.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

So, I know why you're really here. You're here because I promised you a name if we reached our fundraising goal.

So let me go back to our names.

Dean's only son's name is Aaron. When we decided to adopt, our last child left at home was Angela.
During Axel's adoption we debated long and hard about names. His birth name is not one that would ever get pronounced correctly here in the US, and not even Dean or I could say it. We both like old names, and names that you don't hear every day. And so we went with Axel, which is my grandfather's name.

Our next adoption moved very fast. Two days before I left we were still discussing names. Dean was all "No more A names." Another family was in country at the time adopting their son and the timing was just right for his life to literally be saved. (he was dying at the time.)  I was looking up a scripture verse about happiness, and the first one I found was Genesis 30:13, which reads, "Then Leah said, "How happy I am! The women will call me happy."  so she named him Asher."

I turned to Dean who was sitting across the room. "How about Asher?"

"I like that!" he said. Which was good, since God pretty much decided it for us!

Along came our 3rd adoption. I don't even know how many names we discussed, and they started with all different letters, but the name we both kept coming back to was Abel. And then one night I was in my prayer closet...I mean the shower...when God very clearly gave me a message about our soon-to-be son. "This will not be easy. It will be the hardest thing you have ever done. This child is very capable but you will have to find him. He is very ABLE." I didn't say anything to anyone except Dean. The next day on my blog a very good friend of mine said, "My husband said his name is Abel."

So here we are. A girl. But now we have 5 A names in a row, so to give J a name starting with anything else would just be weird at this point. Because 5 A names is not weird, right? Certainly 6 won't be.

Do we ever say the wrong name? Oh, only 100 times a day. But I did the same when I had five kids at home who had very different names. One time the baby was crying and the boys were fighting and the dog was barking and the phone was ringing. "Ro...No...T..Br...Who ever is BARKING STOP IT!" So it happens, no matter what the names are.

We did know, however, that we didn't want an A name with a short /a/ sound (as in apple) or /A/ sound, as in airplane.

So, start with A
Old name
No /a/ sound
No /A/ sound

This was no easy task to name this child!

We tried out name after name. Nothing was right.

Then one day a friend was talking about a family member. I think it was her aunt. I really don't remember, because when she said her name it hit me in the heart. I texted Dean the name and nothing else. No question. No explanation. Just the name.  He called me seconds later. "I love it!"

That night at dinner we talked about the name with the kids. Angela can say it without any problem. Axel is very close to being able to say it, and Asher and Abel can sign it. It feels right. Still, if I meet her and it doesn't feel right, nothing is written in stone.

And so, our old, uncommon, non "A" sounding name is.....

Audrey.