Her Name: Gracelyn Louise

I have always felt that I wanted to wait for our babies to be born to name them. I have also felt that I didn't want our girls to have middle names. Things change.

We decided that it would be best to give this baby girl a name now. There are many prayers that need to be and will be said in her behalf before she is born. It will just feel better having a way to refer to her.

I searched for a name that stood for strength and courage. I didn't find anything that seemed right. Gracie was the first name that came to my mind when we found out we were having a girl. Others have come up since then, but we wanted to wait for her to be born. However, it does seem to fit now.

Grace is a "virtue name." It means the grace of God, in favor of God, a blessing.

Louise. The name Louise means famous warrior. Fits those whose name it previously belonged to. I find no better name for strength than to name her after her great-grandma Murray, a great example of enduring a life of heart problems. A warrior. She was one of the first in the state of Utah and nation to have open heart surgery. Through her life she had a total of four open heart surgeries and lived nearly 60 years after her first. One of her surgeries was done by Elder Nelson. They came up with a way to stop her heart for five minutes and they taped a blade to their index finger and did what they needed and had her heart back and going in that five minutes. My mom has told me that she is at peace with this and confident that all will be OK in the end, not easy, but OK. After talking with my sister-in-law, I've realized that maybe a lifetime of taking care of my Grandma's heart problems has prepared her for this. When my grandma was pregnant with my mom she was told to abort, my grandma wouldn't. When my mom was two months old my grandma went in for open heart surgery and wasn't ever able to hold my mom or take care of her as an infant. She has also experienced two open hearts for her dad and one for her sister.

-Lyn, well, that just sounded cute with Louise, and made the name not so common.

We approved it with Mr. C and he likes it! Baby Grace!