Introducing: Lucy Holland Peaden

Please meet...

Lucy Holland Peaden

June 17, 2019

6:25 a.m.

7 lbs 13 oz

19 inches long

We are so excited to have this little sister join our family. We already love her so much.

Lucy, your name is so special to us. We wanted to find a name that would be perfect for you and that would help strengthen you and give you power throughout your life. We hope that through your name you always feel loved- because you are. You always have been and always will be. 

Lucy: Light. 

(We also realized after the fact, that the name Lucy was often given to girls born at dawn because "light" was also interpreted as the coming light or "as of light". It's super fitting for our Lucy-girl's 6:25 a.m. arrival.) 

Holland: Faith, strength, hope and a willingness & ability to do hard things. 

After reading the story of Grace Vlam, a little girl who lived in Holland during World War II - my heart was touched. It had a very big impact on me, (more than just the fact that I sobbed for days just thinking about the people of Holland at this time). I will write the story out in a separate blog post, but the faith of Grace's mother, the answered prayers, and the light of the gospel in such a dark time are an example to me - a reminder - of strength, faith, and hope. There are hard things that happen in life that we have absolutely no control over, but as we hold fast to our faith we receive that hope and strength, even when we don't have the power to change anything. The name Holland also stands as a reminder of the people of Holland who, following the end of the war, were asked by the Lord to give their potato harvest to the starving saints in Germany. What a difficult thing to be asked to do! But they did, and they were blessed because of it. This reminder that the Lord will ask us to do hard things because His ways are bigger than our ways. This is such an example of love, of faith, of forgiveness, of making and keeping covenants. A note from me (David). First, Shantel does not know it, but for me this name also represents Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. He has been an apostle since I was very young and it has been his words, more than any other prophet or apostle that I have found to be inspiring for me, to have faith in the Savior and to follow our Heavenly Father. 

I hope that your name will bring you a special power and strength as you spread light to all those around you, my sweet Lucy Holland.

Before 20 weeks, we didn't talk about baby names at all. But as we walked out of the ultrasound, knowing that our sweet babe was a girl we brought up the name Lucy and I said that I loved the name Holland. (Actually, I had been 99% positive that she was a girl and I had already been thinking about the name Holland quite seriously.) From that moment on, we never really seriously considered names other than these two. 

(David) Right from the start, my favorite name was Lucy and Shantel's name that she really loved was Holland. So when we started putting names up on our bathroom mirror we wrote some variations of names with those two, plus Hazel which we would have used if Caleb had been a girl. Our mirror looked like this, Holland Sue, Lucy Hazel, Hazel Kate, Lucy Holland.

  

We both love the name Hazel, but after trying it out for a couple of days it was clear that it wasn't the right name for our little girl. I pushed hard for Holland as a first name, but I think that I always felt in my heart that Lucy Holland would be her name in the end. I had a couple of sweet experiences thinking about it and just feeling that it was right. Even so, I'm pretty noncommittal and every once in a while I'd pull out a list of names and go through them with David. He always shrugged like "Why are we doing this??", and we never seriously considered another name. 

The interesting thing is that because Shantel had pushed so much for Holland as the first name, I grew to like it and took it much more seriously, so I think because of that, Holland really stood out as the middle name that we wanted. 

As soon as the kids started saying "Baby Lucy", it was pretty much a done deal.

I truly believe that names are important. Your name Lucy, will be a reminder to you that you are light and you bring light to this world to help and strengthen others. It will also be a reminder for you to have faith, hope and follow the Savior even through challenges. I love you!