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When we bring our child home it is mostly like that he or she will be over 6 months old and already have a name. So we now have 3 name questions. What to name the baby, how to name the baby, and do we change the baby’s name?

What to name the baby is giving us the same trouble as it did last time around - we can come up with girls’ names but we don’t necessarily agree and as far as boys’ names go, well, we just can’t come up with those (so let’s hope for a girl).

How to name the baby? Do we use an “American” name? Do we try and find an Ethiopian name we like? Do we Americanize an Ethiopian name? And that goes along with do we change the baby’s name. I don’t think we’ll change it completely (if we change it at all). We’re leaning towards keeping their given name as a middle name and giving them a new first name.

To be honest, out of all the choices we’ve had to make in the process so far this, for me, is one of the hardest decisions.

But if we do decide to change their name, do you have any suggestions?

Now that the baby is the size of something other than food (the books are all labeling her size in inches instead of produce, although one book did make a comment about her being the size of a pot-roast) she’s started to kick more. A lot more. Some nights she wakes me up because she is kicking so hard and so often. Sometimes, I can sit on the couch and watch my stomach move when she kicks. Sometimes I’ll have one of the toddlers at work sitting on my lap and she’ll kick. The toddler will usually turn around and look very puzzled at my stomach. I like to be able to feel her kicking and stretching in there. It makes it all seem very real. I also like that Kevin can feel the baby kick now, it’s not just me trying to explain what it feels like. Last weekend, Kevin was gone from Friday - Sunday and when he came home on Sunday and started talking the baby kicked more than she had all weekend. Then on Monday, I was gone until about 9 at night and when I came home and Kevin said hi, she started to kick really hard again. I’ve always heard that babies respond to familiar voices, but this was really cool - she apparently really likes to be around her dad.

Here’s the not so fun part of finally having a big belly - everyone wants to touch it. Okay people, here’s the deal, after the baby is born you can hold her all you want, but for right now, BACK OFF. It’s very wierd to have people coming up and wanting to rub your belly. I know that some moms-to-be love the belly pats, but me? Not so much.

My favorite thing about the pregnacy books is that they constantly refer to size of the baby by food. When I was about 7 weeks along it was the size of a grain of rice. 8-9 wks. the size of a peanut. 10-11 wks. the size of a peanut still in the shell (or a walnut, depending on the book) Around 12 wks, it switched to fruit - for a while it was the size of a strawberry. Now at 14 wks. it is the size of a jumbo shrimp.

Kevin and I have a list of names that are still in the “possibilities” category, but we haven’t hit on any that both of us really like yet, so what do you think we should name the baby? I’m not saying we will use your suggestion, or even like it, but if we do use a name you’ve suggested you are allowed full bragging rights to let everyone know that you got to name the baby.

But if you suggest we name it Jimi, you are not funny and not cool. That joke is reserved for the guys in the youth group and that’s it.

We went to the doctor on Wednesday and got to hear the baby’s heartbeat. It was very cool. For the first minute all you could hear was my heartbeat and during that time about a thousand thoughts were running through my mind, most of them being “what if there really isn’t a baby and I’ve been sick and tired and dizzy for some other wierd medical reason?” It’s not that I doubt the fact that I am pregnant, but it’s very surreal. All I am basing this on is 3 things: 1. I’m sick every morning. 2. The doctor said I was pregnant. and 3. I really want to have a baby. For a few days after we got the news, we didn’t tell anybody (well actually we told two people but that was because we went out to dinner with them the day we found out and they live in Montana so we knew the news wouldn’t get out…) and it felt like this cool little secret. Then we started telling people and since we weren’t very far along yet sometimes it felt really fun to tell people and sometimes we felt like we were making up this elaborate story. But now that I know there is a heartbeat and I’ve heard it loud and clear - and believe me, it was loud and clear - it’s officially official, we are going to have a baby.

After a long strech of non-bloggingness, I’m back. I’d like to say that I was doing something extremely important, like eliminating world debt or finding the cure the cancer, but no, I was just being lazy and not blogging. Although, I do have the excuse of being really tired and not feeling all that great for the last 4 weeks. And I haven’t been blogging because I’ve felt like everything I’ve wanted to blog about hasn’t been quite as big of a deal as the fact that I am going to have a baby. Yup. Gonna have a baby in January. Pretty exciting isn’t it? I think it is. At least the baby part is. The morning sickness and tiredness and general yuck feeling are not all that exciting, but I just keep telling myself, “it’s for the greater good.” I’m almost done with my 1st trimester (only 2 weeks left) and according to all the books after the 1st trimester is over I’ll start to feel better. I really hope those books are right.

And here’s the answers to the questions the I am sure you are dying to ask me:
Yes, Kevin is very excited to be a dad.
Yes, we were trying to have a baby
Yes, we are going to find out if it’s a girl or boy
Yes, we will tell you and your brother and anyone else who will listen if it’s a girl or a boy
and No, we won’t tell you what names we are thinking about until after the baby is born.

Welcome to the world Gabriel Isaiah Johnson.

(I wrote this around 1 or 2 in the morning. I’m not editing it. So it is what it is.)

A friend of mine and her husband are expecting their first baby any day now so the excitement, anticipation and nervousness is starting to build. Last Sunday, she asked me, “What if my baby is ugly?” She said she’d had a dream that her baby was so ugly she didn’t want to look at it. I laughed and told her not to worry, that her baby won’t be ugly.

Now, I keep coming back to that conversation and thinking about how the world views people and how God views people.

My first thought is that this baby about to be born can’t be ugly. It’s made in the image of God, created by the Almighty, it will be beautiful and perfect.

My second thought is how differently we see people compared to how God sees us. I know that sometimes I will look at a person and think,”I wonder what their husband/wife sees in them? They’re not that great looking.” (A rude thought, I know.) But this is how the world sees us - no depth, just judging on appearance alone. Then, I will start to get to know a person and suddenly I can’t understand why I ever had my original thoughts about them.

And I think this is how God sees us. He knows our hearts and can see the beauty in His creation.

So, to my friends expecting their baby, I can’t wait to see how beautiful he or see is.