Norris Lane: Baby girl has a name & a shower

Ever since Steven and I have talked about girl names, it has been super hard to agree on one. We started talking about baby names way before even trying to have our first kid. Then, when it became real getting pregnant with Ellie and finding out it was a girl, oh man it was tricky settling on a first name. The "guidelines" we agreed on were it needed to be short...like there couldn't really be a nickname for it, couldn't be too popular and it needed to be a clear girl name. It was around a couple months before Ellie was born that we officially decided on her name. Yay!

Now here we were again, finding out we were pregnant for the second time and it was another girl!! As elated as we were about this news, I personally, was dreading the process of picking another girl name. This time there were even more "guidelines," granted mostly set up by me: the name couldn't rhyme with 'Ellie' or start with the letter 'E'. For the middle name I wanted it to have some sort of meaning for us at least also.

Well, after months of talking, looking and making up names, we decided on Paige Lily! We think Steven came up with Paige and then I came up with Lily. The middle name doesn't have any meaning for Steven, he just likes it. But lilies are mentioned in the Bible, I love water lilies, I love flowers in general and how each year there are wild ones and garden ones that sprout up and show off their beauty; something that starts so small, turns into such a beautiful thing. And, after some time, my mom remembered that one of my great grandmothers was named Lillian. It was kind of forgotten because she went by her middle name, Lucille. I'm so very glad it was remembered because I had wanted to carry on a family name in some way.

Then, last week, Paige and I were thrown a beautiful shower! Flowers were incorporated, a detail I absolutely loved and appreciated even more so, due to Paige's middle name. My girlfriends, Shaina and Amanda, put together some special and thoughtful details. One thing they did, instead of the typical baby shower game(s), was have everyone, including me (and also Steven) fill in the blank prayers for Paige...i.e. 'I pray you love......' It was so sweet hearing and reading everyones responses to those. She is loved and we are so blessed by everyone near and far who have been on this journey with us. Thank you ladies for making this mama and baby girl feel special!