What’s in a Name?

When I was pregnant with Cray, we absolutely knew we loved the name Calhoun for a girl.

And then, he was a boy and we could not decide on a name.

Unfortunately, during my pregnancy, both of my grandfathers passed away. But from those losses came the birth of Charles Raymond, or more affectionately, Cray.

And Kuy, our oldest is named after my mom’s maiden name and Russ’ mom’s maiden name-Kuy Wilson.

Family names, without a doubt, are extrememly important to us.

We have always loved Sullivan, Russ’ grandmother’s middle name so naturally, we thought we would name this little blessing Calhoun Sullivan.

But we still could not decide.

And then one day, we threw out the idea of using Frances.

Frances is my maternal grandmother.

But she is not just my grandmother that I see once a year.

My grandmother and I have a truly special bond that could never ever be replaced.

For starters, I am the only granddaughter out of seven grandsons.  And my entire life, we lived about five minutes from Mama and Papa (Frances and Ken–where Charles came from) so we were at their house all.the.time.

I grew up in her kitchen. Not that I can cook but I sure thought I could. You may remember that my grandfather was also my student as I played school. I even set up a restaurant as a five year old in their kitchen. Mama and I drew and painted and spent the night together. And when I spent the night there one night, I made her sleep in my new sleeping bag and she promptly fell out of the bed.

Yet, she still loved me. 🙂

Mama taught me to read using her Bible. Mama taught me what it means to truly pray. Mama taught me what relationships truly mean and how important time truly is.

You may remember, Mama just turned ninety last year. So her wisdom is beyond meaningful in our lives.

She has lost two sons and now a husband, yet she is the strongest person I know.

And just as strong as Mama is, Sue, Russ’ grandmother is just as much that example in his life. Calhoun comes from Roy Calhoun, her father.

But I cannot leave this post without the fact that throughout this entire decision process of actually giving her a name, it hit us that Frances is not just my grandmother’s name, but it is also my mom’s middle name.

And anyone that knows me, knows how close she and I are. Yep, we are that mother and daughter that talk about twelve times a day.

So on Monday, Callie Frances will enter our lives.

To honor these two women that we adore.

To honor our families.

To honor the qualities that we want to instill in her.

This gallery wall is only the beginning. In Callie’s room, we are filling frames with pictures of her grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Because this little girl will have both grandmothers and four great-grandmothers alive when she is born tomorrow.

And that means something. As she grows, we want her to know them by name and have a relationship with them. And in a small way, a picture sparks that conversation. It sparks that prayer. The prayer that these women in her life, my mom, Russ’ mom, Russ’ grandmother across the road and the other across town and my grandmothers ten minutes away will play an integral part in her life.

Because if she can possess half the qualities of the women present in our lives are, we feel pretty blessed. We are blessed. Living close to family means that to us. It means the presence of so many influential people in our lives and the lives of our children.

And living the small town life with family close by means that for us, our dream will continue to come true.