so you may be wondering how we came to name our new little nugget annabel helen. let me tell you.
cheryl and i went through many names before we settled on this one. first there was emma and james. then came isabel and luke. we got a few books and all of a sudden we had lists. then at our week 20 ultrasound we found out she was a girl (see video on our april 29 post) which kind of cut our list in half. it was by week 26 on our baby shower trip to texas that we really had it narrowed down to our short list - annabel, isabel, molly and olivia (cheryl claims that olivia was not still on the list at that point but its one of my favorites so i still claim it was always an option). it was then that we realized that one of these would probably be her name...whoa. we thought about it though and decided that it was just too early to make a final decision so we put it on the backburner and focused on cribs, stollers, nursery room colors and the like. in the meantime, we kept up our nightly prayers and kept asking for the holy spirit to help us know which name to choose.
about week 34 or so, we started thinking about middle names. for this one we had fewer ideas but were more focused. at bedtime every night, cheryl and i pray a hail mary and ask for love and support from the virgin mary. so how about mary or maria or marie? then one day, cheryl suggested helen. now there is definitely a story behind this name...
growing up in houston, tom and helen linbeck were like two more members of my family. technically, they were just my little sister colleen's godparents but all four of us considered them surrogate godparents for sure. in august 2008, helen was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. on november 5, 2008, helen passed away and left us forever. in person at least. we know that her spirit is still around though and the love, kindness, joy, love, generosity, wisdom and...love that she shared with so many still is alive and strong in those she touched. what better way to pass those values along to our children than honor helen by naming our baby after her. so it was settled. days later we knew that annabel would be her first name and the decision was made.
once we knew that she would forever be known as annabel helen, i decided we really needed to know what this name meant. somewhere in the years 20-50 BC, saint anne was born to an unassuming couple who the story says had been barren for over 20 years. their little girl anne grew up, married a dude named joachim and bore a child named mary. this mary was chosen by god and gave birth in a dirty manger to jesus christ, the savior of the world. the name anne means grace. saint helena was born in the mid-third century into a family of little means. she eventually married emperor constantius and was the mother of constantine the great. through his conversion, constantine changed the face of christianity forever. the name helena means light. we love our annabel helen and what better way could we prepare her to change the world with her love but by naming her the daughter of grace and light...
so that is the story. if you have a story about your baby's name we would love to hear it. email us at aggierobison@gmail.com.
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