Hope in the Sky

As promised, I wanted to share the story of Asha's name. I'll give you the "short" version for now :)

From the beginning of this pregnancy, Ray and I were struggling to come up with names. We had a lot of "yeah, I like that" names for boy or girl, but nothing that really grabbed ahold of us and made us say, "Yes! That's it!" like we did with Isla. We liked Skye, but I wasn't sold. It didn't quite feel right.

I started researching one day to look at names that meant "hope"...a word - no, a concept - that has always held deep meaning and root for me. Wherever you find hope (God), I believe it's a crucial element of life. Without hope, we give up. And when we give up...well...some of us stop living, literally or figuratively. But that's a post for another time.

Every other time I had searched for names meaning "hope", I had come across some bizarre names that would never quite fit a little, white, American girl (Esperanza, for example). And some that were just...weird. But on one particular day, I came across Asha, Sanskrit for "hope", or "life", and I fell in love. 

It wasn't love at first sight for Ray. He was a fan of a book series in which a character holds this name, and wasn't sure it was a name he wanted for his own daughter. When I pleaded that while we could veto names for real people we knew, not book characters, he consented to at least consider it. Not too long after this discussion, he admitted he really liked the name. 

The middle name was a bit more complicated, and we struggled with options. We discussed Ray, Elizabeth, and a few others, but just weren't sold on them and kept throwing options back and forth. I told him I loved the idea of "Asha Skye", keeping his original favorite name, but just could not let myself make my daughter an A.S.S. 

One afternoon, we were all at Ray's parents home with his siblings, sitting on the back deck. When his mom asked if we had a name, he blurted it out (in spite of many discussions of keeping it a secret this time!), and it led to the discussion of the middle name. Having the cultured family we do :), it was then suggested that we use the French word for Skye - Ciel. In Spanish, it's Cielo, and is also used for "heaven". Long story made short, this led to some very spiritual and very God-sent realizations that our little Asha represented hope for this family and the connection of our very close loved ones in heaven, always with us. Ray's mom felt a strong word from God, saying, "I named that baby". Who could argue with that?

At it's very literal translation, Asha Ciel = "Hope in the Sky". What better way to spread the love of Jesus than to remind them where our hope resides :)