cason & colleen: What’s in a name?: Acacia Grace edition

All 4 of us! Cacia was being a little shy

As someone who tends to be cynical and pessimistic at times (my wife says “Ha!” to “at times”), Acacia’s adoption has been incredible so far. To date, it has gone so smoothly, quickly, and easily, that I honestly haven’t been able to enjoy it as much as I should because I keep thinking something is about to go wrong. We have been so blessed by so many different circumstances and people, it truly is overwhelming.

Naptime with Grandma Ramsay

Since Acacia was discharged from the hospital on Friday, we’ve been staying at a hotel in Cincinnati with many family members coming to visit or staying with us. Yesterday afternoon, the birth mother signed her permanent surrender document, and we filled out all necessary paperwork to become Cacia’s guardians. It has been a blissful weekend celebrating and loving on our new babygirl with our families, and we are sad to see them all heading back home after such a wonderful week. I'm leaving tonight so I can go back to work tomorrow, and everyone else except for Colleen’s mom has already left. Colleen, Cashel, and Acacia have to stay in Ohio until both Ohio and Kentucky approves the guardianship, so we’re praying that process goes quickly, so they can all come home by Wednesday or so. Thankfully Colleen will have help from both of our mothers during the week as she gets used to being a mother to two!

So basically, Acacia isn’t official ours yet, and as we’ve learned, you never know what might happen, but we’re past the major hurdles and are trusting that she’s well on her way to becoming a Wittig!

Miss Acacia with Bibi and Babu Wittig

Speaking of becoming a Wittig, it has become somewhat of a tradition to write about the name we pick for our children, since we did so for Asher/Jayson (our failed adoption) and Cashel. We often get questions about what Cashel’s name means or where we got it, just like we have for Acacia in the few days she’s been alive, so we feel that it is important to write out why we choose a specific name and what significance it has to us.

Without further ado, Miss Acacia Grace Wittig:

We like the sound of Acacia (pronounced a-KAY-shah), and particularly the nickname Cacia (KAY-shah), which we think we’ll call her most of the time. Apparently, we are partial to soothing, “sshhhhhh” - sounds. We will probably get tongue-tied by having a “Cashel” and “Cacia” less than 18 months apart in the same house, but our own moms have called us our siblings’ names (and even the dog’s) before, so the tongue-tied-ness probably would have happened regardless of the similarity.

“Wait, you named your daughter after a tree?”

“Well, yea… kinda.”

Acacia trees grow in warm climates all over the world, particularly in Australia, but the type that we are most familiar with is the thorny flat-top tree found in sub-saharan Africa. During our time living in Kenya in 2009-2010, we loved to go on safari in the Masai Mara, and the amazing expanse was dotted with beautiful acacias. Some of my favorite memories are watching the sun rise over the savannah on a few brisk African mornings, with acacia trees and gazelle all around, and warm hot chocolate in my hands.

Acacia wood is gorgeous, and was specifically cited by God for Moses to use to build the Ark of the Covenant, as well as the first Tabernacle, and many other alters to the Lord. In addition to the tree and the wood, acacia is also a word of greek lineage that means honorable, guileless and genuine. I particularly like this meaning of genuine-ness or authenticity, because I feel that I struggle with being that way in my own life and walk with the Lord. I pray that our babygirl will able to be honorable and genuine in the way she loves and interacts with others, as well as in her pursuit of God.

I mentioned before that we think we’ll call Acacia “Cacia” most of the time (though so far I’ve stuck pretty much explusively to “Babygirl” and “Squeaker” - we’ll see if either of those stick). Like Cashel, the name Cacia has Irish heritage, meaning vigilant; Colleen’s Ambrose side of the family is from Ireland, and Colleen and I started dating while studying abroad on the Emerald Isle 10 years ago this fall, so it has a special place in our hearts.

And finally, we have a lovely friend from college who goes by Kacia (same pronunciation), which is a name I’ve always liked since I met her in Bib Lit I over 10 years ago. (Hi Kacia!)

Colleen is going to take over for the Grace portion of this post (which is appropriate for our personalities… Cason = thorny tree, Colleen = lovely, gracious):

Proud Momma

“Grace is the name of my Great Great Aunt on the Ramsay (my dad’s side) of the family. We grew up hearing stories about her and her husband’s mission work and her faith, strength, and peace.

She was a missionary in China with her husband for many years until Japan attacked China during WWII. They then moved to the Philippines to continue mission work, but while there, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and much of the Pacific, so the area where they were living was taken over. Both Grace and her husband Fred were imprisoned by the Japanese in an internment camp for almost 3 years in the Philippines. When they were finally rescued by American forces, Grace’s brother was a medic in the troop that found them; Grace and Fred were almost unrecognizable from starvation, but her brother was able to slowly nurse them back to health. They returned to the US to recover, but continued to minister and to share their faith in God. Grace did return to China a few times throughout her life, always in a ministry capacity, and her life is a testimony of dedicated of service to Jesus Christ.

I was blessed to meet Great Great Aunt Grace when I was young, and everyone who spent time with her talked about her aura of strength and peace. She was a beautiful person, and is a wonderful example and namesake for our sweet Acacia Grace.

Grace also has obvious spiritual meaning to us, and is even the name of our home church that we love so much. As it says in Ephesians, God’s grace towards us is what saves us from ourselves, and there is nothing that we can do to add or subtract from the gift of grace He offers us. We are so blessed by Acacia Grace, and will pray daily that she finds the Lord and lives a life full of the pursuit of His kingdom like her namesake.”

Back to Cason now… I’ve written before some of the ridiculous things about the last name Wittig, so you can just scroll down to the Wittig section this link for that blurb. In summary, no one ever pronounces it correctly, and it may mean "little wooden head" in German. But one great thing about Wittigs: We love ice cream.

*****

Curly hair kiddos with Aunti Adri

Thanks so much for reading our blog and communicating your support via text, Facebook, etc. We really have been overwhelmed by all the love showered our way. A few people have asked how they can help or what we need, and the truth is, we have most of the baby essentials thanks to the generosity of family and friends, but there are a few things on Acacia’s Amazon registry if you’re interested.

Also, even though we’ve already been unbelievably blessed by our church and others in this regard, adoption is expensive. If you're is interested in helping with expenses of bringing Miss Acacia home it would be greatly appreciated.

Personal gifts are fine (checks, cash, or even Paypal or Chase QuickPay, both under casonwittig@gmail.com). However, if you’d like a tax deductible receipt for your gift, our church has graciously agreed to accept money on our behalf through their adoption fund. You can make checks out to “Grace PCA,” with “Adoption Fund” in the memo line, but please send them to us or give them to one of our family members since we’ve been asked to collect them and not have them sent directly to the church.

Thanks again for reading! Let me know if you have any question about giving towards Acacia’s adoption, if you are so inclined.

One Proud Daddy,

Cason

For those having a little trouble, here's Big Bro Cashel practicing how to pronounce Acacia's name the week before she was born: