The Name Game

Even though we don't have our kids yet, Mike and I still sometimes talk about them and what they might be like in the future. It's usually a casual mention, like, "I hope little so-and-so doesn't have your stubbornness," or "Someday we'll come here with little so-and-so." But we don't say "so-and-so" -- we say their names. Mike and I have had our kids' names picked out since before we even got engaged. We had our first girl name and first boy named all set pretty easily. We even got our second boy/girl names picked, just in case either of our cycles yielded twins. The names were the easy part.
Within just a few weeks, Mike's sister will be giving birth to her third child -- their first boy after two girls, ages four and three. Although all she and her husband want is a healthy baby, of course, they're thrilled to know they are finally having a boy. One would think they'd have had their boy name all picked out and waiting in the wings. But it looks like the choice is coming down to the wire. For months they haven't been able to agree on any name. Last I heard, there were two finalists -- both nice names -- but no definite decision.
Here they are waiting for a kid, and have no name for him. And here we wait, ready with names, but with no kids. Our little "so-and-so's" exist and live in our hearts. We talk about them like they could arrive at any moment, but we don't know when that moment will be. We have no estimated due date, no countdown, no "X more days until...." We don't yet know what our children will look like, whose eyes they'll have, the color of their hair or the sound of their voices....
But we know their names.