What's In A Name?

Some of you may wonder how we came up with Victoria's name. It's an interesting story.

I was eleven weeks pregnant when I had my first ultrasound with Victoria. The date was Monday, September, 17, 2007. My OBGYN had gotten a new ultrasound machine and wanted me to come in to help her tech train on it. She had scheduled several of us pregnant women to come in that day and I was the second woman they did an ultrasound on. Mark was out of town speaking at a conference in Georgia so my mom went with me to my appointment that day. We took Elyssa and Natalie with us, as well. Of course, this was the infamous visit where I was told that something didn't look right with the baby. My feelings were all confused and mixed up. I didn't know what to think or feel. I immediately called Mark in Georgia and gave him the news. I was crying when I told him the findings of the ultrasound. It was hard for him to hear this type of news being so far away, but God was such a refuge for him.

While speaking at the conference at Sherwood Baptist Church, he became re-aquainted with Victoria McBride. Victoria had worked at First Baptist North Mobile when attending the University of Mobile. She now serves as the assistant to one of the pastors there at Sherwood. During those first few days, Mark couldn't get the name "Victoria" out of his head. God kept bringing that name to mind when thinking of the news of our unborn baby's health situation. When we talked on the phone Wednesday of that same week, Mark told me of the name Victoria. We knew by looking it up, that it meant "victorious." I felt total peace about this name and agreed with Mark's decision to name our "problematic" baby Victoria.

God had a neat way of confirming Victoria's name to me that same day. I had gone to choir rehearsal that night and before leaving the church for home, I stopped by the bathroom. While using the facilities (yes, I was using the bathroom!!), I looked up to see a new roll of toilet paper that had not been unwrapped yet sitting on the shelf in front of me. While still in it's wrapper, it had something printed on it in bright blue letters. It was the name "Victoria." I almost flipped out right there in the restroom! That was too much of a coincidence. I knew that was a confirmation! As crazy as it seemed, I knew I had received a sign from God about Victoria's name in the bathroom!

The next confirmation that God gave me was that same night a few moments later. As I pulled out of the parking lot of the church to the exit lane, I was stopped at the traffic light. While sitting at the light I looked to my left. There is a Krystal located there. I noticed on their sign at the very top it had the word, "victory," all by itself. I almost flipped out again! I know I said out-loud in my car, "No way!" I couldn't believe what I had just seen. God was showing me again that this little baby was going to be a bundle of victory.

A few weeks later, I began looking through my baby name book for middle names. I looked for all the "spiritual" names like Hannah, Grace, Faith, etc. I wasn't "struck" by any of them. Then, I remembered that Mark has a wonderful aunt named Jane. I looked up Jane. It meant "God is gracious." So, this name made it on my list. As Mark looked over my list that same night, I heard him mention that he wondered what the name would mean if you spelled it Jayne. Our pastor's wife had died about a month before in a terrible accident and her middle name was Jayne. We remember thinking that Jayne was so pretty and Tammy was such a beloved woman of God. It wasn't until several weeks later that we actually looked up what Jayne meant. To our surprise, it meant "victory." We believe that God was all over that name, too! So, from then on our new baby's name was Victoria Jayne.

As we prayed for Victoria Jayne through my pregnancy, her birth and recent heart surgery, God always reminded us that she was and is His "victorious victory."

We serve a good God who shows His hand at every turn. How can we not praise Him?