Journey to Katherine

Today, I thought I would explain how we came about picking out the name Katherine for our daughter. First of all, I have always loved the name Katherine and my husband, Joe, loves it also, so there was no problem agreeing on her name. Katherine's name has a special attachment to a very special woman who has touched my life, Katherine Mae Braithwaite. She is an extraordinary, loving, compassionate, strong woman, who is a nurse that trained me to become a physician's assistant in a pediatrician's office. I worked with her for almost 5 years and saw her endure unbearable emotional pain with the suffering of her only child's incurable illness. I never saw her cry, get angry, heard her raise her voice or lose her patience with anyone. She was always very supportive and encouraging. I have always had the highest respect for her and knew in my heart that if I ever had a daughter, that I would want to name her after Katherine. After I married, we struggled with infertility issues and Katherine was there to assist me through the treatments and gave me moral support to have the strength and faith to endure the failed attempts and more procedures and treatments. At last, I was able to conceive and after nine months of complete bedrest and a complicated high risk pregnancy and delivery, we received our "Gift from God", Matthew! What a Blessing he has been in our lives.

Now, after 20 years, we are adding to our family and Matthew will have a little sister! Somewhere in China, there is a baby girl waiting to join our family, and her name is Katherine Mei Lia!

We have had the middle name of Mei Lia picked out for several months. I have never known what Katherine's (my friend) middle name was. Today, I called her and asked her what it was, and to my surprise, she told me it was Mae. I could hardly believe it. What a wonderful coincidence. I believe it is meant to be :)