She has a name!!

Our precious little girl has a name!! Picking out names for your children is hard for me. It has to be something that you love on a child and that you can see an adult having. It has to be something that you love and not just something that is popular at the moment. The first girl name that we ever fell in love with was Caroline. It's not a family name, just one that we both adored (and still do). We had to find a name for our second daughter that we love just as much. That being said, our daughter will be:

Ann Parker Israel

She will go by both names. This name is very special and we just love it. Ann is my middle name (well, technically my former middle name since I legally dropped it). I was named after my great-grandmother. It is also Adam's mother's name. I have always loved the name. In fact - my dog, my car, and my cat from high school (who was a boy) were all given the middle name Ann. It was on our list of middle names for Caroline but we didn't think it flowed as much as Grace. Adam promised me that if we ever had another girl we could use Ann. Parker is Adam's uncle's middle name. So many stories that Adam tells are about his Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary. They never had children of their own so they loved Adam and his brother as if they were. Adam loves them both so much so it only seemed fitting that we use one of their names. Our neice is Mary Scott and we didn't want to have two Mary's so close together. Adam always loved the name Parker (for a boy or girl) so it just seemed to fit. Back in February we were discussing having more children. I was several months away from being pregnant so it wasn't a serious discussion, but we mentioned the name Ann Parker and agreed that we liked it. After I found out I was pregnant, I was actually set on another name for a girl. However, once it was confirmed that we were having another girl that name didn't seem to fit. Adam looked at me and said "Ann Parker?" the night that we found out. From that moment it became our top name. We still went back and forth because we didn't want to pick something so soon, but I think we both knew that Ann Parker was it. We did the exactly same thing with Caroline.

We are so excited about adding Ann Parker to our family this year. What a beautiful blessing she is!