The NAME

What's in a name?

When Jesse and I found out we were pregnant, the first thing I did was WHAT ARE WE GOING TO NAME IT?! 

Boy, or girl, I knew I had to have the "perfect" name. It needed to flow... With our last name, and a potential last name (if it was a girl...turn out to be ;) ) and Jesse really wanted a "good" meaning behind it. After we had been married a bit, (even before) we talked about our future family quite a bit. One night we decided to write down in our journal (we have a journal that we write notes to each other occasionally, something special and sweet once in a while) all the names we liked. We did some research wrote down names. Even got specific. Saying whether we liked them for a middle name, it was OK, starred our favorites, and let it be. 

Then, one surprising day, March 8, 2010 (to be exact) the pregnancy test came back positive. Immediately I said ok now it is time to pick favorite names. 

After MUCH talked we decided on a little girls name almost right away. 

Boy name, not so much. The crazy thing, Neither Jesse or I ever felt a huge pressure to pick one. Although I would bug him once in a while, and say we need to pick one, we need to pick one. We never fully agreed. (Mostly, he didn't love the name I loved, and well that is all I wanted :) ) 

Then, 18 ultra sound came...YIPEE! I couldn't wait to find out. I was little a little kid at Christmas! Then, the lady told us GIRL! We just both knew it!! And were relieved, because we had a name too!

We picked it long before we were pregnant. It is in our journal with a star by it....but more than that her name comes with a lot of sweet love behind it. Not only did we just flat out love it, we knew that someday it would truly reflect the woman that she would become... Her name: 

Laila Belle Hinrichs

Laila (pronounced like layla) is Arabic, meaning dark night, (I know your thinking you want your child to be dark night? NO!) but we also looked up other meanings and we found the Hebrew meaning. In Hebrew it means dark haired beauty. Given her jeans, she will definitely be that. :)

Belle is a family name for Jesse. His great grandma's name was Belle, and well it flowed. So well. It made it beautiful. Classic. And to be honest it reminds me a bit of my southern roots :) Belle is french and it means beauty. 

I know the name has high expectations for her to be this bomb shell... but that is not what we are looking towards. We know that she will be a beautiful spirit. Already is. She will reflect the love and beauty of Jesus. The beauty of kindness, gentleness, boldness, and fearlessness. She will live a life in the beauty of knowing her savior. 

We can't wait to "meet" little miss ourselves, and show her off to the world. 

We are already SO proud of her, and all the beauty that will blossom from her little being. 

We love you sweet beauty! 

love, Mommy and Daddy