Rebekah is 1 month old today! The past month has been a blur and I can't believe it's already been a month. We are still in a babymoon. With that said, I think the story of how our daughter got her name is a really neat story, and one I'd like to share.
We'd been trying to get pregnant since last April (2012), when we got pregnant, then had a m/c in June. We'd continued to try since then. I know, not a long time, but it felt like a while.
In Feb. 2013, we went to Prague and prayed before the Infant of Prague. It is said that many people who pray there end up conceiving. A few weeks later, we found out we were pregnant. So I've felt this child was a gift from God since the beginning.
Soon after we got pregnant, we started discussing names. Jon was set on a boy's name, but a girl's name just kept going through my head. I had no feelings about a boy vs girl, but felt strongly about the name Rebekah/Rebecca. I told him that and we decided to give up the name discussion til we knew. After we found out it was a girl, I told him again. He wasn't fond of it, but started thinking about it, and agreed the name sounded good and felt right.
But he had 2 requests, could we not spell it Rebecca, and could her middle name be Agnes. I cringed. I did not like Agnes at all. But he was agreeing to the first name, and I could at least consider Agnes. And truthfully, I didn't care how we spelled it, and I liked the Biblical Rebekah form, so that was fine. I began to pray about Agnes. We googled "St. Rebecca" to see if there was one. The only one we found discussed was a St. Rebecca (Rafka) who, when she joined the convent, took the name Anissa (Agnes). So that felt like something from God, but I was still skeptical.
Then I remembered, at the beginning of the year, a lot of my Catholic friends locally went to "Saint of the Year" and I had too. I had a few friends who had done it for many years, and swore by it. So, when I got my saint, who was the patron saint of young girls, chastity and rape victims, I was completely freaking out and worried. Would rape affect our family somehow? I finally just ignored it, decided it was a silly site, and never really prayed to the Saint. Until I began praying about the name Agnes, and remembered that "my" Saint had been Saint Agnes of Rome. When I remembered, I knew this was God telling me that yes, her middle name is suppose to be Agnes.
So, I feel really giddy and excited about her name. I love saying it, as I feel it's so beautiful now. I just feel like this is what God wants as her name, and that He really has a lot in store for her. I'm also enjoying praying to St. Agnes for her. And the fact that she's the Patron Saint of Chastity helps a momma too ;-) So, she is Rebekah Agnes. :)
