Why Pearl Elizabeth?

For everyone wondering why we named her Pearl Elizabeth....

Pearl is a special name to us for three reasons:

1. Pearl is the birthstone for the month of June. Our daughter's birth mother was born in June so we thought this would be a special tribute to her as we are very thankful she made the choice to put Pearl up for adoption instead of raising her in extreme poverty or even worse, aborting her.
2. Pearl is the feminine form of Perry. Jack's middle name is Perry so we are so pleased to have a daughter named after her daddy! Perry is a family name because this was also Jack's deceased grandfather's middle name.
3. In the book of Matthew in the Bible, there are a variety of similes for the kingdom of heaven. One of them is a pearl, which is a perfect simile because a fine pearl is a valuable treasure that needs no polishing or cutting by man. It comes to us complete and lustrous created by God. We are so thankful for this illustration because our Pearl was created by God and we believe she is a VERY valuable treasure! Though we know she isn't perfect, needing "no polishing" like the kingdom of God, we do believe she is a perfect fit for our family.

The name Elizabeth is special because my deceased Grandma Chando's first name was Elizabeth. We loved her dearly and miss her desperately but we are honored to have our adopted blessing named after her great-grandmother. Many of the female great-granddaughters are named after her in our family.

We now look forward to meeting our darling Pearl Elizabeth this summer when we take a visit trip to Guatemala!