I started working at a hospital since my last blog post. And I had a baby girl. Which is one of the reasons I haven't had three spare seconds to write anything of substance. I don't know how all those Mommy bloggers do it. I guess they write while their kiddos are napping? But when Bug is napping, I'm usually holding her. Or I'm napping, too. And both of those things are more important to me than eking out time to write my particular blend of stuff and nonsense.
I've been thinking a lot about names recently. Probably because we are rapidly approaching the second and first anniversaries of my having to bestow names upon tiny humans. It's an incredible responsibility, and if anything, in my life I've proven time and time again that I'm not so good at being responsible. Case in point:
This is a thing that I own. That I paid money for. It is a fried chicken. Get it? Yeah. What responsible adult would buy something like this? Me, that's who.
I did, however, take the naming of my children seriously. We went back and forth for months about what our first baby's name would be. We picked out two contenders, and decided that we'd wait until he was born to pick the right one. But once he was born and we held him, I knew that his name was Matthew. Matthew means 'gift from God,' and just because we didn't get to keep him doesn't mean he was any less of a gift. The Other Half picked his middle name - Charles. The Charles River runs through Boston, and OH wanted a name that reflected where Matthew lived. I suppose if I ever get to the point where I can scatter his ashes, it would be fitting to do it at the river. The Charles is a very short river, but has been pivotal in making Boston what it is today. So, putting it all together, our Matthew Charles was a gift from God who, although he had only a brief time with us, left a permanent impression in our hearts.
I always knew that I would name my first daughter Elaine, after my grandmother. After all, she was the woman who graced me with my love of fantastic footwear. When it came to picking a name to go with it, OH suggested Elizabeth, which means 'the promise of God.' Elaine means 'light.'
In the babyloss community, a rainbow baby is one born after the loss of a child. It refers to the notion that while nothing can undo the damage left by such a loss, something beautiful can come afterward. In the Bible, the rainbow is a symbol of God's promise to mankind never to flood the Earth again. So putting all that together, our Elizabeth Elaine is our promise of God in light - our rainbow.
My name means 'emerald isle,' or Ireland. But it occurs to me that the 'isle' part applies more to me than I ever realized. I am an island - a lone mass of land in the sea. I'm terrible at making friends - I can't count how many groups I've tried to fit in to or people I've tried to befriend. I'm awkward and dramatic and too smart for my own good. I was bad at it before Matthew died, and I'm worse at it now. I don't shy away from talking about my son, and it makes some people profoundly uncomfortable. And because of that, I am very, very lonely.
I'm not really sure where I was going with all this. It's just one of the things I think about.
