It's All In The Name!

Ryan is our little "firecracker".  You can read into that anything you want.  You are probably right, whatever you are thinking.  Since Ryan began walking and talking Dave and I have been frustrated and contemplative in respect to some of Ryan's behavior.  It could be worse.  He really is a sweet kid.  But sometimes he is a NON-conformist...yes, I know, he gets that from his mother.  And Dave and I have spent what feels like wasted effort to get this kid to conform "for his own good".  We have also learned over the years to just let Ryan be himself with boundaries.  So far it is working pretty well.

Switching gears here

When I was just barely 20 years old, I received my patriarchal blessing.  It was a time in my life when the future I thought I was going to have crumbled away and left me questioning many things. I was seeking direction in a specific area of my life.  And I got a whole lot more answers to questions that I didn't even know would exist until I began having my children.  Some of my blessing is very serious and, actually, some of it is somewhat humorous.  In my blessing I was told that I would have children.  It also said that I would have children that would "honor and respect the name that I gave them".  What a relief.  So I thought...

When Ryan was born we decided to give him that name simply because we liked it.  It fit him (foreshadowing).  We gave him Marcus for his middle name because that was my maternal grandfather's middle name.  My grandad came from humble beginnings as a farmer and became a well sought after carpenter later in life.  And our family is very proud that my grandad was the Mayor of Burbank, California.  He was such a great man!

Several years passed and I was curious about the meaning of names.  As I was looking up names of our children I came to Ryan's meaning.  It said Ryan meant "laughing".  Well isn't that appropriate! Hmmm, I thought.  What could his middle name, Marcus, mean.  I looked that up too and found that Marcus means "hammer".  As I put the two together I just about fell out of my chair laughing...Ryan Marcus put together means "laughing hammer.  Oh my goodness, we couldn't have named this child more appropriately if we had tried.

Bottom line, Ryan has sure lived up to the promise of my blessing that he would "honor and respect the name we gave him".  And I know that God does have a sense of humor!  LOL!!!