What's in a name?

L and I got married over a year and a half ago.  We bought a house and a puppy.  Now we are adopting a child.  Given the blogging phenomenon, especially with our generation, we are clearly way behind on getting started.  It seems when important events start happening, everyone our age begins blogging...so here we are, doing it as well.

We decided we wanted to start this blog given our new journey of adoption - so that others are able to keep up with our journey, pray with us and hear all that God is doing.  So we sat down one Saturday afternoon and begin searching for a URL for this blog.  Have you ever done this?  You probably are thinking it would be so simple...but it is not.  We literally spent hours trying to come up with something that wasn't taken, yet creative.  We listened to songs, looked up lyrics and scripture, but apparently everyone had that idea way before us and everything we thought of was taken.  Many of our favorite ones were claimed years ago when someone only posted once and then never again....really?!?  Of course, the simple ones were not taken, like our names - but what is creative about that? :)

Our first dance at our wedding was Fires by David Ramirez (check out his music because it is awesome) - we love this song and decided to listen to it for inspiration on a blog name. The last line says "...but you have a grace that keeps me here".  We really liked gracekeepsme but assuming this too had to be taken, we typed it in and held our breath, knowing we were destined for disappointment, but what do you know...IT WASN'T TAKEN and without any hesitation, that became the blog name.

Why is "grace that keeps me here" so important to us?  Like the song alludes, our love for one another is full of grace.  We are both imperfect people and without grace, our marriage would be lifeless.  I am not the perfect wife and am not always righteous, but he loves me anyway.  Loves without hesitation, something I do not deserve, but he gives anyway.  He displays Christ love and grace for me daily.  And that is the other, and more important, reason we love this phrase.  Christ continually shows us grace, and it is certainly what keeps me.  I am constantly amazed at how His grace rescues and restores me.

So what's in a name?  For a blog, probably not that much.  But searching for a name led to more than just a URL (finally!) - it led to us searching our hearts for what important thing in our life we wanted prominently displayed.  Grace it is.

Now on to baby names...