Soon enough, we had a bunch of our friends visiting and asking us what we needed. I had no idea what had to be done. One doesn't plan for such scenarios. It was our desire to have a Guatemalan birth certificate to recognize the life of our daughter. This was no easy task but thankfully so many people helped us to get it done. One of the first questions that came us was, "Have you given her a name?" Yes we had. About a month prior, on our flight to Miami on our way to Haiti, I felt like God had given me a name. In the hotel in Miami, I wrote in on a piece of paper to show to Areli: Esther Nina Pope Martínez. Esther was the name of Areli's grandmother and Nina (pronounced /nyne-na/) was the name of my grandmother. Esther means "Star" and Nina means "Little Girl." Little did we know that she would be taken to heaven when she was such a little girl. To write her name on the birth and death certificate was a lot more difficult and came with tears. There is something powerful in a name.

In the Bible, names usually mean something. There are several examples of God changing the name of someone whom He has called: Abram to Abraham, Jacob (deceiver) to Israel, Simon to Peter, Saul to Paul. But what I like most is that God says that he will give us a new name.