Naming Our Rainbow Baby

How Gracie Got Her Name... 

You may or may not know this but we had been struggling with infertility for the last 2 1/2 years. We experienced a miscarriage this past spring and it really was hard to go thru. We finally decided to move forward and be okay with only having one child after going thru it all. Then this summer shortly after my grandmas passed away we learned that we were in fact expecting. It felt like a miracle and I almost felt like I had a special guardian angel watching over me. I convinced myself that if  grandma could have nine successful pregnancies, maybe just maybe she would have a hand in helping ours along the way.

Shortly after we found out that I was pregnant I started to see a rainbows each day. They call a baby born after a miscarriage a "rainbow baby" so I found it ironic that I was seeing them so often. At first I thought it was a coincidence but then it became a daily thing and to this day five and half months in I see at least one a day. I would like to think it's my grandma's gentle way of reminding me that everything is going to be okay. It reminds me of this special crystal that she had in her dining room that would hang from the window and shine rainbow rays of light. I still remember seeing it every time I visited her house as a child. 

My instincts started to tell me that maybe just maybe it would be a girl. I decided from the start that if it was a girl I wanted to use Ann as her middle name since that was my grandma's name. Then it came time to start picking possible boy and girl names. My husband had Grace (Gracie) on his list. It was never one of my first picks, but it started to grow on me.  Then things started to happen that made me reconsider. The name started to appear everywhere. The homily at church based on the topic of grace. I would see the name just randomly in places and I started to be drawn to it but I wasn't sold on Grace Ann. That's when I decided I would do Grace Elizabeth possibly. I knew she loved saying "Sarah Elizabeth" when she greeted me each time I saw her. I knew she loved it also because she used it as my aunt's name. Then a few days later when we were doing our family advent reading, the topic for the day was on the importance of a name and what names meant. This passage stopped me dead in my tracks. It talked about how the name Ann means grace or Gods favor. It lead me to do some research and I realized that Ann is Hebrew and it means God has favored me. The name refers to Grace. In that moment I realized that name was perfect. Even better than just using Ann for the middle name. 

The signs just kept coming. Earlier this week one of the local churches passed out flyers and put them on all the doors in the neighborhood inviting us to their Christmas service. The church name. Yep you guessed it Grace Hills Church. The encounters got to the point that I was seeing it SEVERAL times a day in unexpected places. 

The last encounter was almost eerie. It happened the day of our ultrasound as I was checking out at Macys. The lady asked if we knew what we were having and I explained that we actually had that ultrasound that morning. We had the ultrasound tech put the gender reveal in a box with confetti and that we would be opening it on Christmas morning. I told her how excited we were because we had waited so long and had such a difficult time getting pregnant. She informed me her daughter struggled too for eight years. She then smiled and said that's why we named her Grace. She wished me luck and said Merry Christmas. It took my breath away. I could barely even respond to her. 

Some might think that all of these encounters with rainbows and grace are just coincidences but I would like to think otherwise. I would like to say they are messages from a very special guardian angel. As much as I miss my grandma, I think she's closer to me then I realize. 

It came to no surprise to me on Christmas morning that the gender reveal box  in fact did had lots of pink confetti inside. So Grace Elizabeth Griffith it is. She will make her arrival on May 22nd. While the name was never one we considered in the past I think we would be crazy not to. 

If your willing to get quiet and listen God often speaks pretty darn clear to you.