All in a Name...

If we have heard this question once, we've heard it a thousand times. Have you picked out a name yet?? Normally, I would wait until she is born to tell people, but it seems to not be such a big deal in the Arab world and Hary has already told everyone on this side of the ocean.

So before we even knew she was a girl, we had one of each name picked out. Hary and I both wanted a strong biblical name. However, the next qualification was a bit trickier...we wanted it to be pronounced the same in English and Arabic. As you can imagine the list was pretty short!!

In Romans 16:1-2 there is a faithful woman named Phoebe who Paul advises the people to listen to and help her as she was a deacon in the church. We liked that even though she is only mentioned in 2 verses, she is a strong, faithful, godly servant of the Lord, worthy of respect.

Middle names are rare among Arabs, but very important to me. So her middle name has 2 parts...Joyann. The "joy" comes from the translation of the Setswanan name that the Africans in Botswana gave me during my time there. And the "ann" is my mom's middle name. Mothers and daughters can have such special relationships and I wanted her to always carry her mother and grandmother in her name.

And of course, although it is not normal in Belgium or with Arabs for the wife to take the husband's name, it is perfectly normal for the children to take their father's name. In combination of her middle and last name, she will be a perfect mixture of 2 families, 2 lanugages, 2 worlds, and 2 cultures.

So coming soon in November...Phoebe Joyann Khano!!