A Minor Change

Since we received the referral of our beautiful daughter, I have really struggled with something. We love the name Gabriella Sol. I mean love it. But we did not expect to love our peanut's given name. Some of you know that we were matched with her because of her name.

Here's the story-- after we lost the referral of our first daughter Karen, our agency contacted us about a new referral. At the time, they had 3 little girls who were waiting to be matched with families. Because of our situation, they wanted to make sure that we were matched with one of those babies. As a result, we were asked if we wanted them to choose one of the girls for us, if we wanted the youngest or what. Our first concern was that we wanted to know some information about the baby. We wanted to know if her birthmother was a minor (this can complicate things substantially) and a few other things. Basically, all of these babies were statistically the same. They were all March babies, all girls, all healthy full-term infants with major birthmothers. So what do you do? It isn't like picking a baby out of a catalog. These babies were so beautiful and tiny and needed families.

Ed and I looked at each other with absolute confusion. What were we to do? How could we make that decision? One of the girls shared my sister's birthday. I was drawn to her. Then Ed said, "Sharing birthdays is only cool for about a second." So I said, "Do you feel a connection to any of these girls more than the others?" His reply was "Yes. Lili." Both Ed and I have great-aunts named Lillian. Neither of these women were able to have children. We have talked about this odd coincidence over the years and how much we love the names Lillian and Lili. Imagine the irony we felt when we realized that our daughter Lili was right in front of us.

I tell this long-winded story because I have struggled with naming Gabi for months. I knew that she was a Gabi, but I wasn't sure that she was NOT a Lili. How could we leave behind the name that her birthmother gave her that so clearly told us that she was ours? The answer is-- we couldn't. After much discussion about how to incorporate her given name, we have arrived at a conclusion.

Her name will be Gabriella Lilisol A. She will still be referred to as Gabi Sol, Gabriella or Gabi. But now my heart doesn't hurt so much knowing that we left her with this piece of her birthmother who loved her so much. And we feel like we are honoring our relatives who have struggled with the same issues so many years ago that we have.