Today my daughter, Faith, celebrates her 7th birthday. She is so excited; she can hardly contain herself. She is like me at my age now, but in a 7-year old body. What I mean to say is that she has that watch dog, filled with confidence attitude, sort of sassy and likes to be the party planner which took me many more years to acquire in my lifetime. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be blessed with such a unique, spirited soul. Anyone who knows her adores her sweet, caring yet sassy attitude. All I can say is "God help me when she reaches the teenage years." Her name, in itself is another reminder of what Chrissy gave to me. There is a story to be told about that one.
Faith has asked many times why I picked the name "Faith" for her, especially when she feels her name isn't really special.......just ordinary. Once she hears the story of how we came to name her, she's a bit more loving and accepting of her name and feels really special knowing its origin. Her name wasn't necessarily one of our top ten names when we had started choosing names for our children. After my oldest son, Eric, was born, it became difficult to conceive, and after almost two years we finally became pregnant. My baby reaching 12 weeks old, I miscarried, and my soul was devastated. Although I never met our baby personally, I felt its heart in my heart. That loss wounded me for awhile as mothers who miscarry can understand. Some of the words no one wants to hear during that time are: "It's all for the best." "How did it happen?" "You are young, and you will get pregnant again." "You were lucky; it could have been severely disabled." Please keep those comments to yourself. Those words don't ease our pain; rather, a simple hug or "I'm so sorry for your loss." or "I'm thinking about you" or sending a card would be helpful. By the way, thank you for all the wonderful cards during that time, as I have kept many of them after all these years as a reminder of the love that surrounded me during a very difficult time.
After a few months, we became pregnant again, only to miscarry within a short time. During those months, Chrissy had become pregnant with her son, Frankie, and a name they had tossed about if the baby was a girl was the name Faith. After some discussion, they concluded that although they liked the name itself, it didn't sound right with their last name Corrao.
I had come to the resolution that perhaps Eric was to be our only child. We had names like Luke for a boy's name and Annalise for a girls name, but I still had it in my mind that God had other plans for us, and eventually during a retreat I accepted the fact that no other children were to come. Whatever God wanted of us; we had accepted it. A week later after the retreat, I found out I was pregnant, and that baby was a boy.....who was Luke, our second child, who was born in 2001. It didn't even cross my mind that we would have another baby after him because it took us a few years to conceive our Luke. When Luke turned a year old, we had the wonderful surprise that I was pregnant yet again. Marty and I smiled in disbelief. We were in utter shock; yet, so elated. I thought to myself that this is icing on the cake, and no matter what God had in mind for this pregnancy......I would not lose faith in Him. All things were possible through Him.
I originally liked the name Annalise; however, Faith seemed more fitting if she were to be a girl. After all, look at what we had been given. How could we not have faith in what was TO BE. With all of our babies, we waited until they were born to find out the sex. I had it in my mind that this baby was again another boy. It felt the same to carry this child as my other two boys, and I suppose I fell into that trap of the old wive's tale that girls and boys carry differently in the womb. I had convinced myself that this birth was going to result in a boy who would be called "Jack". My three sons had a ring to it, and I truly felt that either way we were blessed....boy or girl. I had asked Chrissy about the name "Faith" if we were to have a girl, and she said that she loved the name, but they had no plans on using the name. I didn't want to be a "baby name stealer." You moms out there know what I mean. Many of you have come across a "baby name stealer" or two, right? That never matter much to me, but in the family, you have to be careful.
The day came, April 12th, and I was in the most talkative, happy mood during labor. I couldn't wait until this baby was born. For some reason, I couldn't stop talking to the labor nurse.....I mean nonstop. Marty even made the comment to our nurse that this was not normal for me. It was as if I was on some sort of adrenaline high. Now I understand why our Faith talks so much......her love for talking was seeping through me at that time. Isn't that ironic, but I think a piece of her soul had passed over to me at that moment in time. She was due on Easter of that year, but the specific date escapes me. Our little precious baby came a few days early, and to our surprise out came our little girl! Marty and I looked at each other, and we could hardly speak a word. My Ob/Gyn said, "It's a girl." Marty and I asked her again: "A girl, are you sure, it's a girl?" There was a little bit of laughter in the room after that. Faith Annalise Woytus was to be her name.
Words can't express how excited we were in more ways than you can imagine. You see, Chrissy had given birth to her little girl, Maria, in the previous September. I didn't want to question God as to what kind of baby that He would send to us because of the circumstances of our miscarriages. Any type of baby was welcome to us at that point in our lives. Once I saw our little girl, though, I knew that Faith and Maria would be the best of friends. Just like Chrissy and me, those two girls would grow to enjoy all the benefits that sisters do. Even though they were cousins by birth; they would become sister friends. Chrissy was so excited when I shared the news to her that day. I remember her words as if they were yesterday, "I had hoped it would be a girl! We will have so much fun watching them grow and play! I love you so much!"
"I love you, too, my friend. I love you, too."
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