In our last Stave Family Update, I mentioned our 3-year old daughter Ieva's involvement in finalizing on son Isak's name. Some of you have asked what the story was, so instead of writing it in multiple emails, I'm writing it here for those of you interested in knowing.
But since Isak isn't our only kid with intentionality & purpose behind his name, I wanted to first share the story behind Ieva's name.
IEVA KIRSTINE STAVE
IEVA
Since Ieva was our 1st child born in Lithuania, we wanted to give her a Lithuanian name that would stay with her long beyond her years living here. It's pronounced similarly to "Yeh-vah" and is a very common female name here. It's so popular, in fact, that there is a woman's magazine named IEVA, a Barbie doll knock-off named IEVA (and the miniature "Skipper" version is named Ievute...the common Ieva diminutive) a hosiery chain named IEVA & I think I've seen a furniture store by the same name. All that to say, it's very common here. It is the Lithuanian version of Eve, and at the time of her birth, we knew at least 5 students named Ieva, all whom we liked very much.
But since Isak isn't our only kid with intentionality & purpose behind his name, I wanted to first share the story behind Ieva's name.
IEVA KIRSTINE STAVE
IEVA
Since Ieva was our 1st child born in Lithuania, we wanted to give her a Lithuanian name that would stay with her long beyond her years living here. It's pronounced similarly to "Yeh-vah" and is a very common female name here. It's so popular, in fact, that there is a woman's magazine named IEVA, a Barbie doll knock-off named IEVA (and the miniature "Skipper" version is named Ievute...the common Ieva diminutive) a hosiery chain named IEVA & I think I've seen a furniture store by the same name. All that to say, it's very common here. It is the Lithuanian version of Eve, and at the time of her birth, we knew at least 5 students named Ieva, all whom we liked very much.
Aside from simply thinking the name looks & sounds beautiful, I love the meaning: "Giver of Life." Obviously, in the Eve-sense, it literally goes back to populating the earth. But in my mind, it has far more meaningful theoretical & spiritual perspectives. My prayer for my daughter is that she will become someone who is truly life-giving to those around her. We all know people like this - they encourage & bless those they come in contact with through their energy & optimism. My hope for my little girl is that she will be this kind of woman to those who cross her path.
KIRSTINE:
In 2003, my folks came to visit us here in Lithuania and my mom & I took a trip to Denmark, specifically to trace our family ancestry there. She had a partial autobiography written by her great grandmother, Maren Kirstine Jensen, that described the places she lived prior to her immigration to Michigan in the late 1800's. We had an amazing trip & not only found the church where she was baptized and her immigration records, but the original cottage her father built near the sea where they'd live in the summers. After this excursion to Denmark, I felt a new connection to my Great Great Grandmother. What's more, my mom's younger sister Shelley, to whom I'm especially close, also has the middle name Kirstine (named after her mother's grandmother). Since the women in my mom's side of the family are pretty tight, giving Ieva this middle name was a meaningful way to keep the generations of Jensen women connected & give a nod toward my Danish roots.
In 2003, my folks came to visit us here in Lithuania and my mom & I took a trip to Denmark, specifically to trace our family ancestry there. She had a partial autobiography written by her great grandmother, Maren Kirstine Jensen, that described the places she lived prior to her immigration to Michigan in the late 1800's. We had an amazing trip & not only found the church where she was baptized and her immigration records, but the original cottage her father built near the sea where they'd live in the summers. After this excursion to Denmark, I felt a new connection to my Great Great Grandmother. What's more, my mom's younger sister Shelley, to whom I'm especially close, also has the middle name Kirstine (named after her mother's grandmother). Since the women in my mom's side of the family are pretty tight, giving Ieva this middle name was a meaningful way to keep the generations of Jensen women connected & give a nod toward my Danish roots.
ISAK ANDRIUS STAVE
I'll begin with the explanation of his middle name: ANDRIUS
Simply put, Andrius (pronounced like Ahn-droo-s) is the Lithuanian version of Andrew. We like the name itself, and it's kind of cool that we're essentially naming him after his daddy but in a different language. That's all there is to that one.
ISAK
When I was pregnant with Ieva, we had her name chosen as soon as we discovered she was a girl. With Isak, the process was much more difficult! We wanted to incorporate a Lithuanian name again, but none of the male Lithuanian names we knew seemed right for a first name. We eventually came up with two options: Isak or Liam. I was leaning strongly toward Liam and Andrew was in the middle & could have gone either way.
One day in the past couple of months we were talking to Ieva about what her baby brother's name should be. I asked her what she thought of the name Isak. Her immediate response to me was "Do you mean the Eyes of the Lord?" I was floored. Where had she heard that phrase?? Neither of us could remember a time we had said it to her & I doubt any of her little friends are going around talking about the eyes of the Lord. We couldn't believe it. But then during the following weeks, anytime the name Isak came up, she'd always say something about the Eyes of the Lord. It was weird. Cool, but weird.
So then one night when I couldn't sleep I was talking to God about what this baby's name should be. I was telling Him how I really wanted it to have intentionality & purpose...not just a random name pulled out of a hat. I opened my Bible and read the passages in Genesis about Abraham & how Sarah was barren & when God told her she was pregnant with Isaac, she laughed since she was so old. The woman hadn't been able to get pregnant her whole life, and now at an age the Bible describes as 'well past child bearing years', when her husband was 100, she has a baby. In Genesis 21: 6, Sarah says "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." What a joyful picture! And there's significance here to me personally, as we went through 2 miscarriages last year & I spent the bulk of Isak's pregnancy praying that God would increase my faith and that the pregnancy would last. Granted, it's not the same as being barren, but at times it felt similar.
Later that week in the Galatians Bible Study I'm doing (through the Community Bible Studies International -CBSI- organization), we were discussing chapter 4 and I was so surprised to find a reference to Sarah & Isaac there that I had never noticed before! In verses 21-31, Paul uses Isaac's birth as representational of the freedom that all people have in Christ (as opposed to Ishmael's birth from Hagar which represents bondage & slavery to the law). I love verse 28: "Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise." And Christ came through the line of Abraham & Isaac -- not from Abraham's line from Ishmael. I've read Galatians a lot in my life, but the comparison of Sarah & Hagar to freedom & bondage had never stood out to me before this spring! This also drew me closer to the name Isak.
Going back to Ieva's story: the night I was praying about what his name should be, Ieva's words "the eyes of the Lord" kept coming back to me. I don't have many verses of the Bible memorized, but one of the few is from II Chronicles 16:9 "The eyes of the Lord range throughout the whole earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him." And the only reason I have this verse memorized is because it was written by my dad on the back of a letter that he wrote to me in 1997 when I was on my way to teach at Rift Valley Academy in Kenya. I've kept that letter in my Bible since that time & have read that verse countless times as I've flipped past the letter. That trip to Kenya was a significant milestone in my life, as it not only fueled my love for working internationally, but also for working with third culture kid populations. It was the perfect blessing for my parents to send me off to the other side of the world with. And as I was praying about Isak's name that night, it struck me that it's also the perfect prayer of blessing upon a new life being born in a country far from his own. Even more perfect is that it came from his big sister...not from us. I'm not a huge believer in modern-day prophesy, but I do think it's pretty incredible that God put that particular phrase on our 3-year old's tongue when it ties in so directly to such an applicable & personally meaningful verse.
And if you allow me to stretch my far-reaching connections even further, it's interesting to me that the spelling we liked the most, "Isak" (rather than Isaac), was Karen Blixen's pseudonym (Isak Dinesen) when she wrote her famous book "Out of Africa." ...which is based on her experiences in Kenya. ...whose historic site I visited while I was living there. ...and she just happens to be Danish. I know I'm stretching with this one...but I can't help it! I love to find the connections in things & all of these many connections just equalled one thing that God made very clear to me that night: there was no way we could not name our son Isak. As much as I liked Liam, there was nothing significant to it...it was just a name we liked. The name Isak was too loaded with meaning to ignore.
And now we have him -- Isak Andrius Stave. My prayer for him is that (like his daddy) he will be a person of laughter & joy; that he will have a heart fully committed to God and if he chooses to travel the world, that he will do so representing the freedom we have in Christ as he goes.
So there it is. As I look over at my sleeping kids, these are my prayers for them today, and for the rest of their lives.
