little lady warrior

Pete and I have absolutely loved the name Eloise for several years now. When we first became pregnant with Ethan, Eloise was the girl name we had picked out and it has been in our arsenal ever since. Once we found out that our sweet baby #2 was a girl, there was no question that Eloise was her name.

The funny thing is that when I looked up what her name meant a few years ago, I learned it meant "warrior." Now I am a bit partial to names, and what they mean, especially for my kids - and so this made me slightly  pause to wonder if I really wanted my daughter's name to mean something so masculine and tough. We named our son Ethan Matthew (firm and steadfast; gift of God) and "warrior" didn't seem to fit with this theme.

But, we loved the name so let it go, and once our sweet girl was born --- Eloise Joy was her name. What we've come to find in the first few months of her life is that she really is our little warrior. Her birth was fast and fierce - I was in labor for just about 2 hours and only pushed for 5 minutes. She has a loud cry and lets us know what she wants and when she's not happy.

And, she's a fighter. Especially with sleep. She will fight going to sleep right up until her sweet eyes close. The other day I was rocking her to sleep and, as she often does, she would start to slumber off and startle and start crying again. She kept pushing against me and was so restless. And I started praying for her, that God would help her to rest. And I realized in that moment as I continued to rock her as she fought both me and sleep, that it was such a picture of how God takes care of His children. God knows so much more than we do what is best for us. And we want to fight Him because we think we know what's better. Just as Eloise was fighting going to sleep, I knew that what she needed most was to rest and so I continued to rock her. 

Our little warrior is the most precious daughter I could have ever asked for. I pray that her fighting spirit would be for God's glory and that she would not fight against Him. That she would submit to His love and grace and find rest in knowing that her Father loves her. That He sent His only Son Jesus to be the ultimate sacrifice for her sins. That the battle has already been won and His grace is offered freely - she doesn't have to fight to earn it.

She is our darling baby girl and our little lady warrior. Life has not been the same since she's been born and we wouldn't have it any other way!