Cass Alta

The middle names we choose are always family names. Alta is after Joel’s grandmother, Joel’s mom’s mom. She lives in Ephrata, PA and she has to be one of the coolest 70 or 80-something year olds I know. I seriously could hang out at their house all the time. She comes from a Mennonite background, although they got kicked out of the Mennonite church whenever they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. She speaks Pennsylvania Dutch which I always thought was just a dialect or something, but no...it's an actual totally different language that I can't understand. She is super duper Godly (as is her husband) and we love to just sit in their living room and glean the wisdom that oozes out of their pores. She raised 8 children...4 girls and 4 boys. And we just love her, bottom line.

Now Grandpa has had many children named after him (including Joel Stanley). But, this is a first for Grandma and it is high time. :) Alta means “high, tall.”

Now, for Cass. There are several reasons we picked Cass. I’ll just list them here for you.
1. Joel has always loved the name Cassandra. I like it, but it was just too common for my liking (as in, I know someone named that...that’s the definition of common for me)...plus the fact that Joel already has 2 first cousins with this name.
2. I’ve always liked the name Cassidy or Cassie, but again...just too common (if you have that name, please don’t be offended...I’m a little extreme...remember, my definition of common – if I know someone with that name, it’s common).
3. We even toyed with the name Kassia...it was actually on our name list from the very beginning of having children. Joel went to college with a girl named Kassia (I knew her too...great gal). But, it just didn’t seem right and that is a pretty common name here in Brasil (yes, again...I don’t like common...old news).
4. In college I had a nursing instructor who was just so super cool. She had been an air force nurse and married a man (a brain surgeon actually) who already had a son. She would tell us stories about this son all the time (I’m pretty sure he lived with them full-time) and I’m not sure what his actual name was, but they called him Cass (his initials were CAS). I just liked the sound of it.
5. And, for some reason I remember hearing about Mama Cass from the 70's music group, The Mamas and The Papas...even when I first heard about her (when I was little), I liked the sound of that name.

So, I guess we both have a history with that name or forms of that name. We were discussing it in the kitchen a few months ago and Joel once again said that he liked Cassandra. I said that I had always liked Cassidy and Cassie. Then I told him about my nursing instructor’s son and Mama Cass and so there it was...just Cass. Forms of the names we both liked, simple, and not common.

I looked it up in my name books...I have 2. One book has a boy and girl section and one book is just one big book with no distinctions between boy and girl names. The book with no distinctions has Cass listed as a form of the name Cassidy, which is Irish and means “clever, wise.”

In the other book that distinguishes between boy and girl names, in the girl section, the name Cass is listed as a form of Cassandra, which is Greek and means “helper of men.”

In the boy section of that same book, it is listed as a form of Cassidy also...Irish, meaning “clever; curly-haired.” I thought the curly-haired part was esp. interesting given the trend of hair in our family. :)

So, therefore all the different meanings for Cass Alta can add up to a clever, wise, curly-haired, helper of men, high (and lifted up...that’s what I always think of) tall girl. :) We’re still praying over what exactly this means in our little Cass’s (or is it Cass’) life...we have had very distinct 2-word meanings that came forth from prayer for our other 3 and I’m sure that will be the case for this little special one too. Just wanted to give you the lowdown on the name and why we chose it though. We absolutely love it.

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Just a reminder of the other kids’ names and meanings (some of you have asked recently):
Grady Lester – Noble Knight
Hadley Cloteal – Sweet Joy
Eissa Rose – Peaceful Healer

These pictures are from this morning when the kids came in and really saw Cass and spent time with her for the first time. We woke them up last night after she was born. The plan had been for them to come in when I was pushing and be able to actually see her be born, but it all happened pretty quickly (more on that later), so they just came in afterwards. Even though they were beside themselves with excitement before going to bed, they had been asleep for a couple of hours and honestly just weren’t into it...wanted to go back to bed and didn’t understand why they had been woken up. :) So, this morning was really the first time they really saw her.

So cute too...a little fun fact as far as her name: Hadley keeps calling her “castle.” :) Love that. So funny.

Will post about the birth tomorrow.





This picture cracks me up...I really don't know what we were laughing about.




Grady was watching this show...

Always the comic relief.




Loving on her new baby. This was impromptu...we didn't lead her to do this. She seems completely fine with the new addition.

Me and my 3!! daughters.