Name(s) discussion

well, we didnt need to discuss girls names. that had been decided even before ely was born. when we were pregnant with ely, we had boy and girl names chosen. obviously, ely took the boy name. but, we always had held estella in our heart if we ever had a girl. estella is honor of my maternal grandmother. her name was estelle. toward the end of granny's time with us, i had told her if i ever had a girl, i would honor her with her name. this was way before i'd even met anthony. thank goodness he like this version of estelle :).

as for the middle name, that did adjust a little bit from our name option 5 years ago. we conceived this baby within days of a tragic loss in my family. my stepdad, alan ray huls (AKA: cowboy) unexpectedly passed away. this was a horrible loss and left us devastated. alan had always treated me as his own daughter. he loved me unconditionally. he taught me kindness. he taught me how to be self-deprecating. he made me laugh every time i spoke to him. he was a guidepost for me. i wouldnt be who i am today, without him. knowing we were "trying" around the time he passed away, we immediately agreed that we'd honor alan in some way. knowing that if we conceived during this time, alan's spirit would live within this child. so, with the first name of estella, we decided to use alan's middle name for a baby girls middle name...so, if we had a girl, her name would be Estella Ray. we thought is was perfect!

as for a boys name, the struggles continued. we talked a lot about options for boys names. after weeks of discussion, we tabled it. we knew it would be MONTHS before we'd even find out the gender. so, we decided to wait it out.