His Name

We've picked a first name for our little man! I know, I know . . . we haven't even officially started the adoption process with our agency yet. What are we doing picking a name already?

We just can't help it! :) Names are a big deal to us and have been with all our kids. We used to talk about baby names LONG before we ever considered actually trying to have a baby (you know you did it too!). We usually got in these conversations on road trips and would spent quite some time throwing out names to each other. At some point, though, things would derail and Chad would start suggesting things like a possessive name (David's bridal did it, why can't we?) or random nicknames (Cara Melissa, but call her Caramel). It was game over at that point and I would just keep the good ones I came up with in the back of my mind. Thankfully Chad got serious when it was go time and we were picking a name that our child would use for their entire life!

We lost our first baby when I was 9 weeks pregnant. As we mourned, we felt very strongly about giving him (we both just really felt like he was a boy) a name because with a name comes an identity and we absolutely didn't want him to be forgotten. We named him Chad's middle name, Ashton.

We picked our firstborn son's name during one of those road trips I mentioned. Boone is a family name on Chad's side so we both liked the idea of using that as a middle name. I threw out the name Grayson and we never considered another name again!

Our little girl's name didn't come so easy! We knew the middle name would be Noelle, but the first name caused some tension. Chad wanted to use Reagan and I was set on Paige. We both decided to be stubborn and neither of us would give in. Chad suggested we combine them and call her Pagan . . . obviously that got vetoed! During another brainstorming session, I mentioned the name Ava and it just felt right. Knowing Ava now, I can't imagine her by any other name!

With both pregnancies, we couldn't wait to find out whether we were having a boy or girl, not so we could buy pink or blue, but because we were SO excited to start calling our baby by their NAME! It just made it feel so much more real and helped us each bond to this little one as we waited for their arrival.

So why have we chosen a name already? For the same reasons we did with our other children . . . pure excitement and joy that this little boy is OUR little boy! He will have a new identity as our son, as a Gilbert, as . . .

Easton!

So here's the story of how Easton was chosen. A couple of months ago we started talking about a name, you guessed it, on a road trip! One name we both liked was Tate. I wanted time to feel it out, but Chad was seriously ready to cross stitch it on a pillow! I don't know why, but I just couldn't commit to it. A few weeks later, we met our best friends, Charlie and Lisa Ray, for dinner in Slidell (they live an hour away so we meet in the middle for dates!). We were discussing names and I confessed that I just couldn't settle on Tate. Lisa started looking up names on her phone and calling them out one after another. At one point, we heard her say "Easton." Chad and I immediately looked up at each other like "I think that's it. Do you think that's it?" Right there in Starbucks, my best friend Lisa helped pick the name of our little man. That fact is really special to us on so many levels and will be a priceless piece of Easton's story!

I'm not going to lie though. I was still a little nervous about committing to it. But last week Ava started praying for her little brother Easton . . . those precious words sealed the deal!

We'll probably keep his Ethiopian name as his middle name so it will be a while until we know what that will be. But from now on, even though we can't see his sweet face, we can pray for him by name!