5 Minutes Worth of Reasons To Change My Child's Name

Sarah GRACE Freeman

I was once told by a lady with seven daughters, all with virtues as a part of their names, that it was irony to give a child a virtue name. She shared with me that she and her husband had chosen these names hoping that each of those virtues would be a strong point in that child's life. Twenty years after the birth of her first, she smiled wryly as she shared with me the folly of their naivety.

While Joshua and I weren't hoping to magically bestow these qualities in our girls, we have given them each a virtue as a middle name: Grace, Hope, and Joy. I can tell you that we might should rethink what we did to our first-born daughter. Here is a very abbreviated glimpse as to why...

Within a time span of only minutes, my lovely little lady got up from nap by kerplunking onto the floor. She came up rubbing her hip, but smiling. I held out my arms for her to come give me a hug, and she promptly tripped over her feet and smashed face first onto the carpet. She wasn't smiling when she got up this time, but looked embarrassed and pouty lipped at the same time. I hugged her, then held her hand as we made our way to the kitchen to put together a snack.

As she was picking up her step stool so she could better help me, she dropped it on her toe. No tears, but much howling and hopping ensued. We finished putting snack on plates for everyone with no further incident. As we carried the plates to the table, however, she pitched forward and sent the contents of one plate sailing. She managed to hold on to her plate, but further bruise her pride.

After the snack had been replaced and all the children were done, Sarah Grace got up to put her dish away and when she was done, she came to give me another hug. She was three whole feet away from me when she stumbled and crashed into a chair at the table. She then proceeded to knock the back of her head on the edge of the table as she was trying to straighten up. Tears were beginning to pool in her eyes as she wailed and came to me for comforting.

I wrapped my arms around my sweet daughter and pulled her close. She pulled her arms around me, knocking all my coupon clipping to the floor in the process. She cried harder as she began to apologize and promise to pick them up after her hug. I held onto her for a few moments before she slid down to pick up the coupons.

She had gathered all those little flimsy pieces of paper together from under and around the table, then hit her head again as she started to get up. She held tight to the papers, backed way out from beneath the table, plopped the coupons on the table top, then ran for her source of comfort; her blanket. And tripped just before she picked it up.

By now, the poor child was crying in earnest. She was frustrated, embarrassed, hurt, and weary, despite her nearly three hour nap. I grabbed her blanket, gathered her up in my arms and we just sat and rocked and prayed.

Finally, she braved being on her feet again, put on her shoes, and went outside. That was nearly an hour ago. She has only been in twice since then. Once to go potty and once to get a new boo-boo cleaned up.

I can only pray that Elizabeth and Anna aren't as plagued by their middle names as my poor un-graceful Gracie.

And I can only pray that my little Gracie's mannerisms are filled with more grace than her physical movements.