The Name . . .

Almost every infant expert out there says that the chosen name is the most important part of having a baby. Knowing the importance of this it can be a stressful job! As I was reading about the importance I stumbled upon a list of names that celebrities have chose over the years. Go ahead, have a laugh!

• Apple - Daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin
• Audio Science - Son of Shannyn Sossamon and Dallas Clayton
• Coco Riley - Daughter or Courtney Cox Arquette and David Arquette
• Emme Jenna - Daughter of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony
• Free (which babies are not!) - Son of Barbara Hershey and David Carradine
• Harlow Winter Kate - Daughter of Nicole Richie and Joel Madden
• Keelee Breeze - Daughter of Robert Van Winkle (AKA "Vanilla Ice") and Laura Giarritta
• Maddox Chivan - Son of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
• Moon Unit and Diva Muffin - Daughter of Frank Zappa and Gail Zappa
• Moxie Crimefighter (seriously!) - Daughter of Penn Jillette and Emily Jillette
• Poppy Honey and Petal Rainbow Blossom - Daughters of Jamie and Jools Oliver
• Rumer Glenn - Daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore
• Ryder Russell - Son of Kate Hudson and Chris Robinson
• Sage Moonblood - Daughter of Sylvester Stallone and Sasha Czack
• Sailor - Daughter of Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook
• Sosie Ruth - Daughter of Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon
• Spec Wildhorse (no foolin!) - Son of John Cougar Mellencamp and Elaine Irwin
• Teddy Jo - Daughter of John Cougar Mellencamp and Vicky Granucci 
• Pilot Inspektor, son of Jason Lee and Beth Riesgraf

How is that for choosing the most important part?! So this brings me to the story of the name we will be giving our daughter.

I was a very imaginative child. Since my brothers were so much older than me (16, 13, and 10 years) I was essentially raised as an only child. My brothers would say I am spoiled. Its all about perspective, I guess! During the many hours of playing dolls I would name them. These names were often not common because I didn't want my child (or doll at the time) have to share their name with one or two other children in their class. There are a lot of Sara/Sarah's out there! I had a world all of my own surrounding me. 

At some point during this time period I came up with our name. I had heard the names Kristi/Kristy (two of my friends), Kristen (another friend), Kirsi (a classmate) and Kirsten (another classmate). Since I knew people with the other names it would not fit my requirement of an unusual name! Kearsta fit my requirements perfectly!

When Derek and I started talking about our future children we both had our favorite names picked out. Luckily I had a favorite girl name and he had a favorite boy name. We both liked the other names and went with those with little discussion. It is almost surreal to me that after all of these years (probably around 20) my dream of having a daughter named Kearsta is coming true!

Since Derek and I never discussed first names we most certainly had never discussed middle names! Once we met our birth parents we decided that we wanted them to choose her middle name. I think this will be a perfect gift to our daughter's adoption story.

A couple of days after telling the birth parents I received a text message. The birthmom said that they had narrowed it down to two names, Nicole or Annaliese. I text her back and said that I would talk to Derek and let her know. She send me another message saying that she was leaning toward Annaliese. I told her that was the choice. I would not feel good if we would have chosen Nicole as that would have taken away the gift they were going to give her.

So we are all in agreement (adoptive parents, birth parents, birth grandparents) that her name will be Kearsta Annaliese Grady.  We love it!