A Rose By Any Other Name

Olivia Eden just couldn't be anyone other than Olivia Eden. When I wrote about Ian's name, I mentioned that Vernon and I had picked out names for a boy and a girl when we first started trying to have children, which was a very long time before we ever actually had our children. Both names were names we liked and didn't think much about the meaning of either of them. But both names have meanings that have come to mean the world to us.

First of all, we chose Olivia because I have loved this name since I was fresh out of college. I've wanted a daughter named Olivia, that I could call Livvy if I wanted to, for as long as I can remember. Vernon was sweet to agree to Olivia and he will only call her Livvy. That's a daddy's heart . . . to call his girl by a precious nickname. I, on the other hand, feel confident that I will go back and forth on what I call her. We chose Eden as a name that is a spin-off to Vernon's mother's first name, Edith. Those are the reasons we chose the names Olivia Eden, but the Lord gave us many more reasons to have no desire to change her name and feel confident that she is our girl.

In the same post I wrote about Ian's name, I mentioned the word we had received about having Ian and the dream that then followed letting us know that Ian was in our future. Just a few short weeks after my dream about Ian, I had another dream about Ian, but in this dream, he was with a girl. A girl he called, "Ivvy". And, then the Lord sent another man with another word and a vision of Vernon walking with a child pulling on each hand. Just as we began praying for our Ian, we've been praying for our Livvy since that time. And now she's here! God is so incredibly gracious!!! He is generous, faithful and loving. He is more than I can put into words.

In our praying for Olivia Eden, we learned a lot about her name. Olivia means "Olive Tree" and Eden means "Delightful". The meaning of Eden, "Delightful", touched an obvious special place to me. The Lord gave us the desire for Livvy in our hearts long ago and he has delighted in bringing that desire to life. He delights in Olivia Eden and she is a delightful blessing to us. "Delightful" made sense to me and is precious to me.

"Olive Tree" was harder for me to find special meaning in, but the Lord gave it. When thinking through so many of the promises that came to pass in scripture, so many of them were shown through the sign of an olive branch. The olive tree was a source of life and promise in the Bible. Our "Olive Tree" is the same. Another amazing fact about olive trees that my mother found out is that olive trees grow best in infertile soil. I can't even tell you how much I love that! Especially with this pregnancy that has been more difficult, that required progesterone, that while many thought I was fertile, I knew better. We've been blessed with two miracle babies and this one is thriving in her infertile soil, just as olive trees do.

A rose by any other name just wouldn't be as sweet, and our daughter by any other name just wouldn't be our daughter. Or nearly as sweet.