Ella Sr. & Ella Jr.

This is Ella's name sake! Meet my best friend Ella Sr.! This is her right after she got a phone call from Matt saying that I had just had Ella. Obviously she was in shock because she came early. The other picture is of her holding Ella in Louisiana. We named our daughter after Ella for a number of reasons.

1) She is my best friend and she has a cool name. 2) I had never had a Christian best friend that was crazy fun and at the same time I could share the deepest things in my life with. She has been someone that I can talk to about my faith in God and we can talk about scripture and grow from each other. She's always been on my level spiritually.
3) She has been loyal. Since I got married in the middle of college and moved, then moved again from NC to FL she has been there. She has always adjusted to me changing and has never kept me in the same place when she met me as an 18 year old. So I love how our friendship has evolved and continues to evolve.
4) She knows me. As a youth pastor's wife I know that we'll probably move around some. So it's great to have a best friend that has been there even prior to Matt knowing me. She knows my history (good and bad)
5) She brings out the crazy fun in me. I hope my daughter Ella has the ability to walk in room and have everyone laughing like Ella Sr. can. She can make friends with a rock EASY! I love her spirit and hope my Ella gets a little bit of that channeled into her from her name.
6) In my baby name book Ella means Beautiful...in other books it means other things, but I'm going to stick with beautiful because I think both Ella's live up to it!