what's in a name?

i know i gave much of the details for the labor and delivery in my last post, but neglected to post her name.

 

okay, so i lie!

 

i didn't neglect to post her name, she actually had no name until a few days ago. you see we have a bad habit of bringing our babies home without a name. kawena was "baby" for the first three weeks of her life! we put a lot of thought into naming our children and sometimes it takes time! i think nani was the only one that actually had a name within the first couple days of her birth!

 

the other factor is that, by tradition, my dad gives the middle name to all of our children. because of this, he needs time to "see" her and really ponder what name is fitting for our baby.

 

the combination of these two things, not to mention that she is our FOURTH daughter (i mean, c'mon, we can only come up with so many girl names!), has lead us to a delay on the name!

 

but, alas, we have decided on a very fitting name for our fourth precious girl.

 

introducing...

    Mahealani Pohaikealoha

 

when we were naming kawena, we were torn between two names: kawena and mahealani. after much thought and prayer, we knew that kawena was the right name for her.

 

so, this time around we had mahealani as one of the contenders. we looked through the hawaiian dictionary and made up a list of names along with their meanings and hung them on the refrigerator. when she was born early we knew we REALLY had to decide on a name.

 

for a few days each one of us was calling her by a different name, poor girl was probably very confused! but, we finally decided that she was mahealani!

 

the meaning?

 

well, mahealani means "the night of the full moon". she is partly named after me because mahina means "moon or moon goddess".

 

for her middle name, my dad had given us several suggestions, mostly having to do with flowers. they were all very nice names. however, after he sent us the list, via email, he had a second thought. he sent a second email with the name pohaikealoha. he said that after sending the first email with names, the name pohaikealoha just came to his mind. you can call it whatever you want, but i call it inspiration.

 

when mitch and i read the meaning we knew that it was perfect for our new little addition.

 

the meaning?

 

pohaikealoha means "love encircles".

 

i can testify of the love that follows her everywhere! this little one is surrounded by love from every direction! her mom and dad, her three older sisters, her tutu's and grandparent's, and many auntie's and uncle's! it was just so fitting! and she is so easy to love!

 

 

 

 

(note: some photos courtesy of mj photography)

we welcome, with much love, our sweet mahealani pohaikealoha!