How We Named Our Farm Boy

When I first got pregnant, Michael and I were hoping for a girl. We liked the idea of having a girl first to be an older sister—after all, that was how both our families were. I’m the oldest of my siblings, and Michael has an oldest sister. Sometime near the end of my first trimester, I had a dream about the baby—the first one I’d ever had. And in my dream, we had a baby boy. He had big brown eyes, fine brown hair, and a small cute face. The funny thing is that even though he was small, he was walking already and we all thought he was physically advanced. (Sound like someone we all know and love?) I woke up in love with that little baby boy. And I suddenly thought, “Hmm, I wouldn’t mind if Fig was a boy.”

As I got closer to week 20 when we would find out Fig’s sex, I felt more sure Fig was a boy. Michael also told me he had changed his desire and hoped Fig was a boy instead of a girl. So when Dr. Dillon announced he was definitely a boy, I was not that surprised, but I was delighted. And I decided God had given me that dream of that little baby boy to change my mind and heart.

Now for a name. We had plenty of girl names, but no boy names. Although I had always liked the name Wesley, Michael wasn’t too keen. But when we found out we were having a boy, Michael came around and admitted Wesley was the name.

We spent some time experimenting with the spelling. We decided to spell it Westly after the hero from Princess Bride since we had been reading that with our book club the night we discovered I was pregnant. And that’s how we named our little farm boy.