A Lily by any other name

We needed to come up with a name for our baby. Tony and I talked about her constantly and tired quickly of saying “our little girl” or “our baby”, etc. Of course, we knew in China that our little one would already have been given a name but we have no idea what it is. So we started brainstorming.

I definitely wanted Katherine to be part of her name. My grandmother’s (my Dad’s mom) name was Katherine. My granny, as I liked to call her, was an incredible woman. She was a kind, loving, strong, brave, generous, beautiful woman who had a profound impact on my life. Two of my nieces have Katherine as part of their names, too. Obviously, our grandmother was someone special.

Tony and I discussed different ideas for a first name and agreed on the name Anna. Anna Katherine. Hmm…quite beautiful we thought. However, that was before the dream.

If you haven’t figured it out by now I'm a little strange….ok, a lot strange. Anyway, one night I had a dream about our daughter. I dreamed that Tony was giving our little one a ride on his shoulders. I could see her perfectly. She had on a little yellow seersucker sundress, white birdcage sandals, and her hair was up in pigtails. Her little hands were on Daddy’s face and pretty much covering both of his eyes. In my dream I said, “You’d better move your hands Little Miss or Daddy wont be able to see where he's going.” Without skipping a beat she responded, “My name is not Little Miss. My name is Lily Katherine.” (Is it me or do you think she already has her mother's attitude?) The funny thing was Lily wasn’t even a name we had ever discussed or even thought about.

When I woke up I told Tony all about my dream. Poor Tony is no stranger to hearing about my dreams so he listened intently and then said, “Maybe our little girl is trying to tell us something.”

I know, I know, that’s strange enough but it gets even stranger. At this point Tony and I hadn’t shared our adoption plans with anyone. When we decided to let our families in on our plans I told my sister, Patti. The first thing Patti said was, “Oh, how wonderful! I can just see you with a little girl named Lily!” I couldn’t believe what I had heard! I had goose bumps from head to toe. At first I thought Tony must of told Patti…I mean how else could she have known?? But he hadn’t. Patti said it just came out of her mouth without really thinking about it. Needless to say, that sealed the deal. From that point forward we knew her name had to be Lily Katherine.

When we learn what her Chinese name is we will include that as a second middle name.

As I'm sure most of you know Tony and I have different last names so you may be wondering what Lily's last name will be. Well, Tony and I reached a compromise and have decided to hyphenate Lily's last name. Lily Katherine Wet-Bird. Has a nice ring to it....don't you think? Don't worry. I'm teasing...Lily will have her dad's last name just like I have mine.