Tom and I were discussing names soon after choosing to adopt, (it’s what all expecting parents do.) I was scouring baby name books and websites. The entire time, I kept coming back to the name Eliana. So I decided to mention the name to Tom, he didn’t react much, either way, so I took that as a “no.”

Later, I started making the traditional list with all of the other names I liked (not loved.) I showed my new list to Tom and his first response was what happened to Eliana. Eliana would be our first daughter’s name. That was that and I thought no more about it, and when we talked about our daughter we called her Ellie.

Then in December I called Shawna, a friend and former classmate from College. I knew that she and Brandon had adopted twins from China after reading a lovely article about them in a College Publication. I told her that we had chosen to adopt from China and started sharing the entire naming saga with her. At that point I did not realize that her twins were named Ellie and Anna. She said that the name Eliana translated to “my God has answered” and that she had also had the name Eliana on her heart during the adoption process, and split the name so that both of her twins could share in the special name. At that moment I knew that God had placed the name Eliana on Tom’s heart and my heart and that the name fit perfectly.

Eliana will be our daughter’s first name with some part or parts of her given Chinese name as her middle name.