Penelope: What’s in a Name?

Baby names are kind of a big deal.

Some parents know their children’s names from the time they are tweens, planning their weddings and families and personal fairy tales.  Some keep the baby name a secret until they are born.  Others pick a name for its meaning or the way it sounds or to match the first letter of every other person in the family.  People pray for months over their child’s name.  Others consult mediums and specialists who supernaturally help them decide on the right name.  And some people (I’ve known a few) don’t even name their children until after they are born.  They just don’t know who they are yet!

Choosing a baby name has been an important part of life since… well… probably since humans have started naming their children.  And there is (almost) always a good reason or story behind the big choosing of the name.

For us, the name was everything. 

Penelope: How we knew it was time to have a child.

We had plans.

Oh boy, did we have plans!

When my husband and I got married, we spent the better part of a year planning our future.  We were gonna be missionaries.  We were gonna travel the world.  We were gonna go on grand adventures and might possibly never live in America ever, ever, ever again.  And kids?   Well, IF we ever had them (which we probably wouldn’t) they would grow up hiking the mountains of Mongolia in a basket strapped to a donkey… or something like that.  But that wasn’t really something we talked about much… because it wasn’t even in the plan until five years later.  If ever.  Probably not, though.  Not ever.

Never.

Looking back now, I have to laugh.

The Treasure of the Village

My child is almost three.  And there’s a lot going on in her little head.  She’s growing and changing every day.  She’s learning new vocabulary, experiencing her world every second, and somewhere just around the corner she will step onto a school bus.

I am 32. I am a mom.  And a wife.  And a teacher.  And a friend.  And a daughter.  I clean, I cook, I launder, I find things, I answer questions.  I give baths, read stories, change clothes, take trash, fill gas, buy groceries, plan meals, save money.  I sew, write, paint, read, and occasionally I sleep.

I confess, there are probably things that slip through the cracks of my life.  But I know without a doubt that every other second an opportunity to teach my child slips through as well.  She’s a little sponge right now, and if I wanted to (or had the time and energy to) I could sit with her all day long and never exhaust her capacity to take in information.

And that overwhelms me.

Because I can’t do it all.

I can’t teach her everything.

I’m going to miss opportunities all the time.

Which is why I am SO thankful that I’m not alone in this parenting thing.

At the Knoxville Mom’s Blog today I’m sharing the treasure that I find in the village around us- whether in our family, our community, our church, or our schools.  I absolutely cannot be ALL things to my child, but I am blessed to have other adults in her life who can help me pick up the pieces.

How have you (and your children) been blessed by your village?