Naming Luke

I wanted to go into a little more detail on the name we chose. Many of you know that this is the same name that we had chosen for our first referral (Alazar). After losing that referral, we had a really hard time knowing what to do about a name. We've been asked many times over the last five months if we had chosen a name for the baby, and we would always say, "No, we're going to wait until we meet him to decide." Which was the truth - we really didn't know!

We struggled with feeling like we needed a new name for this new baby, but we couldn't come up with any that seemed to be right. In the end we decided that Luke Steven was the name we wanted to give our son, and even though we thought for a time that our son was supposed to be Alazar, God knew all along that it was to be this precious boy now sitting in my lap. This is Luke.

The name Luke means "bringer of light." As we considered the name, we did some reading about Luke in the Bible and realized his heart was much the same as ours. He demonstrates a great concern for the orphans, the widows, and the poor of the world, and he magnifies Jesus' call on us to care for them. Our prayer for Luke is that he will bring the light of Christ to those around him and that his heart will be burdened for the needs of the world.

His middle name, Steven, is in honor of my dad. I think my dad was quite a bringer of light himself to a lot of people. Though they won't meet until heaven, I hope that we can teach Luke the traits of loyalty, kindness, endurance, and integrity that my father modeled for me.

Lark Toys

Both boys are sleeping at the same time for more than 20 minutes! So I have time to post again! :)

Yesterday my mom and I took Isaac and Luke on a little road trip to Lark Toys, a nearby toy store/museum that was super fun! Since it was a week day, it was not crowded at all, so that made it even more fun! We also had a great time talking with one of the owners, who just turned in her paperwork to adopt from Ethiopia! Yay for that!

Grandma was taking all the pictures so unfortunately she didn't make it in any!

They have a great carousel that Isaac and I rode three times! So fun!

Isaac with a giant panda

Isaac in the teepee

And they have ice cream! He was one happy kid!

Me with my handsome boys (and the llamas). I had to put both of these pictures up because Luke looks so cute laughing.

Brothers