Her Name.

Liya Evangeline.. A name Leon nor I thought about, knew about, or even considered until one night when he got home from work.

Ever since the beginning we always knew we wanted kids. It was a desire of our hearts. It was also a desire for The Lord to give us the names for our children. It just made  sense that He name them considering He knew them already. It was the same for Evelynne. He actually gave us her name before she was even conceived.

Considering Leon and I knew that Evelynne was a girl and her name would be Evelynne from the very beginning. This time around it was a bit rough. We didn't have Liya's name until I hit 30 weeks. I was certainly getting ready to take matters into my own hands because I wanted a name for our sweet girl. It's so much easier to connect with her if I had a name to call her instead of  baby.

We were almost set on the name Madison.. It was the only name Leon and I could agree on. Otherwise He liked "Ivory" and I liked Jubilee. (I still want to name a daughter that!) But we didn't agree so Madison it almost was.

Leon came home one night at three in the morning and woke me up asking me  what I thought about the name Liya (Lie-yah) and at first I really wasn't sure. I've never heard of the name and it was a bit weird. But before I put it out of my mind Leon suggested that we looked up the meaning before we close the door.
  
Liya \li-ya\ as a girl's name is of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Liya is "I am the Lord's".

Instantly I felt a peace about the name. I went from not liking it that much to absolutely loving it in about five seconds. 

When I asked Leon where he had heard it He said it just popped into his head while he was driving home. The Lord seems to give Leon all of our kids names while he's driving. 

While we were sitting there I said "What do you think of Evangeline for the middle name? It flows so perfectly". He agreed so we looked up the meaning to that one too!

 Evangeline \e-vangeli-ne, ev(a)-nge-line\ as a girl's name is pronounced ee-van-ja-LEEN. It is of Latin and Greek origin, and the meaning of Evangeline is "good news".

We were blown by how those names not only fit perfectly together but the meanings went together too! There was no way we believed it was coincidence. It couldn't have been. It was such a blessing from God.
It was then when we finally had a beautiful name for our girl and I'm so glad we didn't settle or take matters in our own hands. I couldn't even see my girl as a Madison. She is certainly a Liya who loves Jesus already!

A few days after we had officially decided I took Evelynne on a walk while I was praying and asking God why He chose the name Liya for our sweet daughter. He then told me that it would be Liya who will be carrying on the evangelical anointing her father (Leon) carries. Have you heard my man preach? You need too! And her and Evelynne will flow together into ministry in both worship and evangelism and so many will be saved for His glory. I was seriously overjoyed and I still get all excited when I think about the future and calling God has on their lives. We have some excited, Holy Spirit filled days ahead of us.