A writer’s secret (or so I’ve heard):  always leave the reader hanging, wanting more.  (“Have you had enough?  Or are you thirsty for more?” – Kevin McAlister, Home Alone.  If you don’t know Charles and I all that well, you’ll quickly learn that we love movie quotes.  Especially from hilarious Christmas movies.  Anyway, I digress.)  This is twice now that I have ended blog posts with sort of “cliff hangers”, although completely unintentionally!  I must be channelling my inner English major…somewhere down there…

Alas, without further adieu, the answer to what so many have been asking:  AJ stands for Alexandra Jude.  

At around 14 weeks when we learned that our baby was a girl, Bishop BASIL encouraged us to name her so that we could all pray for her by name.  This was by far the hardest thing I have ever done (Charles may have found it easier!  But naming our two dogs was like, really, really difficult, so I think we were in the same boat!).  We had discussed names for a baby, both male and female, and our list consisted of mainly family names.  Both of us had a weird feeling, for lack of an eloquent way of describing it, naming our sick child after a living family member.  As we set our family names aside, we resorted to the best research source possible:  Google.  We googled all kinds of names, Orthodox saints, meanings of names, etc.  While we came across many beautiful, meaningful names, I could not shake the idea of “Alexandra” – it was always in the back of my mind.

In March of this year, my beloved priest of my whole life, passed away.  His name is Father (V. Rev. Fr. Dr.) Alexander Atty, of blessed memory (also referred to, respectfully by me, as “Daddy Atty” – Kat said that was OK!).  He lovingly shepherded our church family for 30+ years, me for 28.  When I said goodbye to him for the final time on the day of his funeral, I asked him for his continued prayers for us and our unborn child (whom we didn’t know was sick at this point).  There are countless family members and those that have passed in addition to Fr. Atty, but I know there is no one who will pray more fervently on our behalf in front of the throne of God.  …which is probably why I couldn’t get the name Alexandra out of my head, and is the now the name of our first daughter.

Once Alexandra was decided, we still had to pick a middle name (geez — the first name was hard enough!).  We discussed Saint Jude, as in the hospital, the philanthropy, and all of the good that the organization does.  Additionally, in researching the saint, we learned that he was the brother of Jesus, so who better else to be praying and interceding for us than Jesus’ brother (and Fr. Atty).  (I also neglected to mention that St. Alexandra’s story is a beautiful one, one which I read often, and is a wonderful testament of a great martyr and lover of Christ.)   PS:  if you’ve seen me in the last few months, you’ll notice I wear the icon of St. Alexandra around my neck, along with an “A” monogram that was a gift from my cousin, Natala.  Our Alexandra Jude, aka AJ, has a strong name to fulfill, and God-willing, as her parents, we can nurture that calling.

In closing, I want to thank the Atty family for allowing us to name our daughter after the most wonderful priest, father, and mentor, and a double thank you for allowing me to share this story on the internet.  I would also like to share a few pictures from the “Walk Away from Colon Cancer” walk/run that we participated in this past weekend.  “Team Attytude” had the largest team registration (duh!), and probably the most fun, all in honor of Fr. Atty!  A BIG thanks to the organizers – Laureen, Maria & Lauren – we couldn’t have done it without you!  Memory Eternal, Father!