What's in a name?

"The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out." John 10:3 (NIV)

Our little China baby will be named Lillian Mei. We are giving her the name Lillian because of Odell. Odell is a dear friend of the family, but she's really much more than that. She's my grandmother. Odell lived with my grandmother (my mom's mom) for years. As long as I can remember and probably longer than that, it's been "We're going to Mamma and Odell's!" Lillian Odell has been unoffcially adopted in to our family as our grandmother. So, I could think of no better way to honor her than to name our adopted child after her. We chose the name Mei (pronounce May) to keep part of Mei's Chinese heritage. Mei means beautiful. This is the first part of the name that Carla and I agreed on.

We were going to call Mei...Lilly, but after months of us calling her Mei and before deciding upon the first name of Lillian, the name had stuck. Carla and I were determined to still call her Lilly, but our two kids, Marley (10) and Luke (6), were not budging on the name Mei. So, after much deliberation and discussion, she will be called Mei. We love the name, too!