Avia Joy - who will she look like? No - what will she look like?

     Although there is talk about "designer babies" these days, it wasn't so when I had my children. Who would they look like? What color hair and eyes? Their gender,weight and height were all things you pondered. The answers wouldn't be known until that blessed event occurred. But once they were born, it didn't much matter, because you loved them so very much.

     Well, giving birth to a blog is quite different. You do get to design or choose what you want, and how it will look. But I had no ideas or inspirations. Yes, I had a name, but that had been given to me. So I told God that if this was of  Him, He'd better show up and inspire me.

     My daughter- in- law asked me what I thought I wanted, and I told her I didn't know. She opened the layout page and thinking ethereal would be good, clicked on it and up came the hummingbirds. The color was great - coral and baby blue - the color of my prayer room. She worked on a few more things, and gave me my homework, and said we'd work on it next week.

     Hummingbirds? Do I want hummingbirds? Cardinals were really the bird that reminded me of God's presence. They were the bird I saw daily and brought joy to my heart . . .hummingbirds? I mentioned it to my daughter- in- law and she told me we could use cardinals if I wanted. She told me to look for a picture of one online, and she could adapt that.

     That evening, I spent about an hour looking at pictures of cardinals on line. Nothing struck me. I was perplexed! "Don't You want cardinals?," I asked God that evening when I went to the chapel. "This is Your idea anyway. You better help me to figure it all out."

     The next morning at Mass, the idea came to me to see what hummingbirds symbolized. When I got home I looked it up and to my surprise, this is what I discovered:

In the Native American culture, a hummingbird symbolizes timeless joy and the Nectar of Life. It's a symbol for accomplishing that which seems impossible and will teach you how to find the miracle of joyful living from your own life experiences.

     I couldn't believe what I was reading. It seemed to "feel" just right. I knew that God had worked through my daughter- in- law to get the right template for Avia Joy and I was flabbergasted!

     I called a friend of mine, who is an avid hummingbird watcher, and shared my story with her. She confirmed my idea to keep the hummingbirds by telling me what they mean to her. She said that hummingbirds are God's way of showing us to look for His miracles in the tiniest of things.

     So hummingbirds it is!