What’s in a name? A lot actually.

As you might know, Maggie’s name is Magdalena Maria Joy. Magdalena Maria after Mary Magdalene and Mary, Jesus’ mama and Joy after the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Each of our kids has a special meaning behind their name, Maggie is no different, and I wanted to share the story with you.

During the Spring of 2018 Carlos pulled up in the driveway after work and sat in his car. I peeked out at him inquisitively and he smiled and tapped his ear demonstrating that he was listening to something on the radio. He came in soon after and told me about the story he had heard about Mary Magdalene. It was a legend about her life after Jesus’ ministry, her journey to France and eventual death. He said, “Magdalena might be a nice name for a girl if we have another baby”. I couldn’t help but laugh. I had mentioned to him during Ines’ pregnancy that I loved the name Maggie and would appreciate having a Magdalena in the family. He didn’t remember this detail but I was glad to be on the same page if we ever had another girl.

A month or so later we signed the kids up for swim lessons with a wonderful woman and on the last day we discovered our shared faith. We swapped stories of travels and pilgrimages and she ended our time saying, “I have holy cards. The kids can each pick one!” If you aren’t Catholic, or familiar with holy cards, they are like trading cards for Catholic saints. My kids have a great affinity for them so when she pulled out a bagful the boys quickly looked for another St. Michael the Archangel (nothing says holy like a sword-wielding angel slicing off the devil’s head). Our swim instructor turned to me, “Let me pick one out for you too!” She searched through her pile of 100 or so cards (let me tell you, its easy as a Catholic to acquire this many) and grabbed one and said, “This one!” Mary Magdalene. I laughed at the coincidence of her coming up twice in such a short period and we said our goodbyes and off I took the kids to the store.

As I lifted our son out of the car I stopped dead in my tracks, “I’m pregnant, aren’t I”. Like I said before, I don’t believe in coincidences. I took a detour in the store for a pregnancy test, shushing questions from the kids who had never been down that aisle. That night the test came back negative and I just laughed at myself for making assumptions, I was wrong. We left for our California vacation a couple days later and when we arrived Carlos suggested I take another pregnancy test because, well because he knows when I’m pregnant (cue massive amounts of flightiness, irritability, and crying at commercials). I was indeed pregnant, the first test was just too early to detect it.

For us there was a connection between Mary Magdalene and this pregnancy. The baby would be born during Lent, the time when the Scripture readings speak most about her role in preparing Christ for His Passion. At 20 weeks when we found out the baby was a girl, we knew her name would be Magdalena. For Christmas Carlos bought me a custom medal of Mary Magdalene to wear during the rest of my pregnancy as a reminder of our praying friend and as something to pass along to Maggie when she was old enough to wear it.

I know that not all of my friends are Catholic and so I will just explain this little part about what we believe about the saints. We believe that those who precede us into heaven are more alive than they could ever be on earth because they are wholly united to Jesus. In their unity to Him, they love who He loves and they love perfectly and they can participate in His ministry because they are in Him. For Catholics this means that just as the saints prayed, helped others, lived in charity and compassion on earth they still do now but they can do it perfectly because of their complete unity with Christ.

Since finding out I was pregnant I have been pondering why Mary Magdalene would make herself known as a companion of little Maggie. My questions only grew more curious when we found out that Maggie had Apert and now as we prep for surgery on Tuesday, I keep wondering, “Why would God ask you to befriend us?”

I was going over scripture thinking about Mary, knowing that a sword would pierce her heart and how she watched Jesus as He embraced His cross and stumbled to Calvary. During my prayer I realized that Mary Magdalene was there too, the whole time, right next to Mary, right next to Jesus. She anointed Him with costly oil before His death, preparing Him for what was to come and she walked with His mother during His passion and she stood with her at the foot of His cross and she knelt alone at His tomb. She accompanied Jesus and Mary and I can’t help but feel that Jesus has given us a gift of a new friend to accompany us. Someone to say, “I have walked with the suffering mother and her suffering child, let me walk with you too.”

Companionship has been the most amazing consolation in all of this. So as we go into this next week I feel buoyed. I have my faith, I have Jesus, and Carlos and that should be enough right? Nope. In His abundant goodness He has surrounded us with an amazing network of friends and family, on earth and in heaven, who love us and are taking care of us in such numerous ways. So, thank you. Again and again, thank you.

P. S. I will likely be updating you all on Monday with the surgery time and then again on Tuesday.