“Wesley Hobbs Joanne!”   Kate was yelling in exasperation at her little brother who had just made some sort of mess out of something.   I had to laugh.   Kate is learning to call people by their full name to add emphasis, and that is a VERY official thing for an almost-three-year-old to do.   The only problem is that she puts the middle name last, and it is always her own. :)  

We celebrated sweet Kate’s third birthday exactly two weeks early, because her actual birthday will be the day after my surgery for the lymph node biopsy.   Katherine Joanne Hobbs was born June 26, 2006.   It was only a few short months after Nathaniel’s Mother, Joann Katherine Hobbs had made her crossing into eternity and all the glory that awaited her there.  

What an honor it is for her to share her Mammaw’s name!   We have often commented to each other, “Wouldn’t Mamma just love Kate?”   She is so many things that Mamma was, gentle, cheerful, easily delighted, compassionate, orderly, and the lover of a good joke.   I love the picture of us from the hospital, all gathered around my Mom’s cell phone as we called Nathan’s Dad to tell him that we had named her after Mamma.   We cried, and prayed that the Lord would give her a double portion of her Grandmother’s spirit.

I cried again on her “early” birthday this year.   I couldn’t help but tear up as I thanked Jesus for letting me share this day with her, and asked Him to hold us through the next two weeks that would lead to her true birthday.   The word cancer has done an amazing job of teaching me to rejoice in the little milestones of life, and to revel in the fact that I am able to be a part.

Kate has such a name to live up to, and I think she’s doing a good job already.   As a follower of Christ, I am His namesake, a Christian.    I hope that just as I see Mamma in my little girl, that those around us will see Christ in us as we walk through this new valley.