what's in a name?

In June of 2008, my Nana (Olive) had an unexpected stroke and after nine days in the hospital, she passed away. During the days in the hospital with her, it became so blatantly real to me that the only thing that matters in life are those that love you. With that truth in mind, Ryan and I decided to start trying to have a baby – instead of waiting for the ‘perfect’ time when we were where we wanted to be in our careers, when we had the right ‘family’ house, and when we were just more settled.

We tried for several months with no results. In December of 2008, I accepted a job out in DC, so we decided to put having a baby on hold. Then, low-and-behold on New Years Eve, we found out we were going to have a baby. It somehow seemed symbolic to find out about this new addition to our family in the same year we lost such an important member – Nana. When we did the math and learned our expected due date was September 11, I eagerly hoped that this little one would arrive on September 15 – Nana’s birthday, and the first possible birthday that we could have a child on since she left.

From the beginning, I felt like this baby would be a little girl. I don’t know why, but when I saw the two pink lines, the baby just seemed like a girl (and I was a minority!).

Baby Girl Briese was born at 8:45 p.m. on September 15. Ryan and I had talked about the name Olive Jaymes. (My grandpa’s – Nana’s husband’s – name was James.) It was a surreal experience to name my daughter after my grandma on her birthday.

Back in June of 2008, when Nana was in the hospital and not able to speak anymore, Ryan and I were able to share with her that we were going to try to have a baby and that if it was a little girl, we were going to name her Olive after her. I never would have imagined that God would bless us by also allowing my Olive to share her great-grandmother’s name and birthday.