I’ve got it – I figured out her name

Julianna Ruth.

Middle names are really important to me – it’s not just a throwaway thing. I like for them to have meaning and depth. Jessica is named Jessica Mary after my mother, and Sam is Samuel Earl after my grandfather. But Julianna’s first name is already after someone (Marc’s cousin and grandmother) and I COULD NOT think of a middle name. Not one that had any meaning for me, I could come up with some that sounded okay – but nothing that I loved. Nothing that seemed right. To the point where I was really thinking that Julianna Chocolate Chip sounded better than anything else I could come up with – because I do really like chocolate chips.

This morning, I woke up and decided that I HAD to find a middle name. It’s time. So I googled (I LOVE to google) one syllable girls names and Ruth was about half way down on the list and the instant I saw it, I just knew. That’s her name.

When I was first pregnant with my baby girl, one of the things I worried about a lot was the fact that Marc was Jewish and I wasn’t. I had a really strong sense of spirituality and I knew that Marc felt just as strongly about his Judaism, and I was so concerned about where Jess would fit into the mix. How could she be one or the other? If she was Jewish, then she wouldn’t look at the world the way that I did – and if she wasn’t Jewish, how would Marc feel? How could I put that weight on a baby? And Marc knew exactly what to say and exactly how to reassure me that what we had together was so much more important that what separated us. He quotes the speech that Ruth made to Naomi, and it reassured me so much, and still does. It’s our Bible quote, the way other couples have special songs.

But Ruth said,
“Do not press me to leave you
or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
Where you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die
There I will be buried.
May the Lord do thus and so to me
And more as well
If even death parts me from you!”’

That’s her name. Julianna Ruth. It’s so perfect that I could cry.