For a while now I've been thinking that I never have shared the meaning of Natalee's name with you all...and then yesterday my mom told me that they are doing another scrapbook page with Natalee on it and they wanted to know the meaning of her name...so I thought this would be the perfect time to share it with you. Let's see...how did we come up with the name Natalee. First of all, it was just a name that I came to love. I was watching the Today show and they have Natalie Morales on there...and I thought to myself...Natalie...now that's a name you don't hear too often yet it's so pretty...I think I really kind of like it :) But I already had a name picked out for my next girl so Natalie was going to have to wait until later. After Emmalee died I was pretty set on making her name the middle name of our next girl...and so I had a first name that I thought sounded perfect with the middle name of Emmalee. But before I could use it another family member chose the same name...and not that I couldn't still use it...we just chose not too...anyway...so I brought up the name Natalee to Jon when we found out that the little baby we were going to adopt was a girl...he liked it, but as always, we couldn't just have one name picked out...just in case the baby didn't look like a Natalee....but when she was placed in our arms we took one look at her and realized that she did look like a little Natalee and so that's what we picked! I'm sure you all can guess why we chose the lee spelling on the end of Natalee...we did it for the same reason we did Emmalee...Jon's mom is Maralee and so the lee is for her...and then we decided to give Natalee the middle name Ann after my mom...we also thought this was a good way to give Natalee something that was her sister's as well...I know a lady who gave both of her girls the same middle name...a bond for them...and I always thought that was a neat idea...'cause they won't always have the same last name :) And I really liked how in Emmalee's name we were able to get our two mom's in there to make it have an extra special meaning so I was happy that I could also do it with the name Natalee (even though I know that she will never find anything with her name on it...I never did either with having only one l in Alison...I never thought I would do that to my own kids...but oh well...she'll live...I did...I'll make her something with her name on it! :) ) We decided to leave the Pearl for just Emmalee...something special that is all her own :) After all...she was our little Pearl :) Now that's how we first chose her name...but let me tell you some of the other meanings that came out of her name that we weren't aware of at the time, but it truly shows how God worked in all of this! Part of Natalee's name is also part of her birthmom's name...I won't say which part for privacy sake but when we found that out we thought that was pretty neat...as I think her birthmom did too...and to add to that, Natalee also has another member of the birthmom's family in her name as well :) Pretty cool! And lastly (and this makes me smile when I think of it)...remember how some of you were praying for a Christmas miracle for us...why you all chose Christmas (and I did too) I don't know...it was almost as if God was placing that time period in all of our hearts...well we did learn of Natalee's arrival right before Christmas (December 9th) and we all knew that our prayers for a Christmas miracle had been answered! Then Natalee made her arrival on January 25th, 2010...one month after Christmas! After we were home and getting settled in I thought it would be a good idea to look up the meaning of her name...and do you know what I found?
Natalee:
Meaning - born on Christmas
Now how cool is that?!?! Our Christmas miracle...even though she wasn't actually born on Christmas day :) God is so good...all the time! Well I hope that you enjoyed getting to know the meaning of our Natalee's name! I'd love to hear how you all came up with your kid's names! :)
9 comments:
How fun! It is cool to hear how people come up with names. :) And I didn't know all the things you found out after you had chosen that name... that's pretty cool. She certainly is a Natalee and although she won't find things with her name on (I didn't with Brittney either! Apparently Brittany/Britany is the way most do it) I think she'll like that it's unique! :)
How we came up with our son's name is... oops have to wait on that one! ;)
The little journaling block they gave me to write in is only 3"x3". How am I supposed to write all of this in there - ha?!?! Thanks for sharing the story and I'll do my best to abbreviate it! I think it will be in an email ad next week!
Love you!
Mom
Oh Britt...you're such a tease!!!
Annie
Wow,what a testimony, woven into her name--so cool! Thanks for taking the time to share the details. Hope you all are doing well : )
I love how God showed you His presence through Natalee's name. Too cool! I am going to give you the shortened stories of how we came up with our children's names. Kevin liked the name Curtis because his dad used to help out at the Curtis Hotel and I had a friend named Curtis who was the nicest guy. Curtis means courteous, and his middle name is Andrew for the disciple. Kevin picked out Lauren because it's very girlie and not too common, plus it means guarded of God. Her middle name is Eileen after my great-grandmother and Lauren's initials are LEE which is Kevin's middle name. With Claire, thankfully we had a girls name picked out since we were so sure we were having a boy and was calling her by the boy name. I picked out Claire because it's Irish and means bright light. Her middle name is Elaine after Kevin's mom because she was due on her birthday.
very neat to hear of Natalee's name. My hubby & I both had to agree on the name (he was working ALOT) so I would make a list & he would tell me the ones he liked..well out of ALL the lists...none so finally we picked a name "Faith" we both liked it & was very fitting (picked after 9-11-01) "Dee" her middle name after my mother in law. My son's name "Preston" we really liked it. His middle name "Steele" after my hubby's grandpa(my kids' only grandpa that they know...we don't talk to our dads & my g-pa died when I was 3) Then our youngest is "Kennedy" after John F. Kennedy (is that weird?) and her middle name "Lynn" after ME :) And apparently I was named after my aunt.
Here is the meaning of their names: Faith= Abiding Trust; Preston= Priest settlement; Kennedy= Helmet Head...LOL she is hard headed :) Sorry this is so long but these are interesting!
Ali,
I see another similarity in her name: although it is spelled differently than yours, her name also contains the word Alee, just like her Mommy! Also, it contains the word "natal" meaning birth, as in neo-natal. Now, you can attach all kinds of significance to that but to me, I think it speaks of your kindness in keeping Natalee attached in some small way to her birth-mother. She's a lucky girl any way you turn it!
That's a really great story to be able to share with Natalee!
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