How Sage Got Her Name

We knew when we first got pregnant that we wanted to name our baby after important and influential people in our lives. I always use to say that I would have to know before hand if it was a boy or girl during the ultrasound, but when I was pregnant we saw the value of waiting until Sage was born. After all, it is the one true surprise you get in life and the only thing the Daddy gets to do, like when Jeramy went out into a packed waiting room to announce for the very first time that we have a daughter. In fact the doctor's let him announce the sex of the baby in the OR, and when he said we had a daughter, I said, "Are you sure" because for some reason both of us were convinced we were having a boy. In fact Dr Ali Lewis (who knew we were having a girl, but heard us calling the baby him) really wanted to deliver the baby so she could say "I told you so" but she had worked too many hours, so the Seahawks head coach, Mike Holmgren's daughter delivered us on a Seahawk Sunday near Husky Stadium. Dr Lewis did come find us in the NICU to rub it in a little bit. I can't imagine finding the sex out before hand, Jeramy was a little hesitant at first, but now tries to talk everyone into it because it was so special, so thank you to my cousin's who pioneered this road before me, because I would never trade it for the world. I have seen too many people who want a boy so bad that when the ultrasound says it is a girl they are disapointed. There is no way you are disapointed when you lay eyes on your baby for the first time. I always laugh when people say, "How do you plan and buy stuff" and I always say it is easy, just buy neutral colors, and that you'd be surprised how much pink floods in after you have the baby. Again, I wouldn't trade that moment for anything and will remember Jeramy's voice and face when he told us that we now had a daughter and that she looked like him, and the pictures of all the people in the waiting room on their toes waiting to hear, because unlike most hospitals that put pink or blue hats on the babies, Sage had a khaki colored one on with Green and Red ribbon for Christmas.
For some reason, and we had no real reason why, we thought we were going to have a boy, and because we wanted our names to be family related we came up with Jackson Lee Jernigan. Jack follows the J pattern on Jeramy's Side (Jim, Jimmy, Jeramy, Josh) and Lee is Jeramy's middle name as well as his dads. It also is the middle name of Andrea and last name of my nephews Marcus and Lucas so it served many purposes.

Here are the reasons and pictures of how we came up with Sage Donna Patricia Jernigan. For such a little girl, she really has a long name..lol



This little girl's name was Sage. About a month after we met we drove down to California with Jeramy's family to get on a Mexican Rivera cruise. This is where we met 4 year old Sage from California. One day she was sitting bellied up at the bar, so Jeramy went up and bought her a shirley temple with a cherry on top, and sattled up next to her at the bar. So for the rest of the trip whenever we would bump up to her she would scream..Jeramy, Jeramy and go run up to him and give him a giant hug. Her parents told us that she couldn't stop talking about him. It was very sweet. Since this trip was the moment when we realized that we were going to spend the rest of our lives together and that we loved each other so much, we said if we ever had a daughter we would name her Sage after this little girl, as a way to remember where we fell in love.



Donna, Sage's first middle name is after Jeramy's Dad's Mom, Donna Jernigan. She died of altztimers and diabetes when Jeramy was about 15 years old. Jeramy was very close to his grandma and would spend memorable 4th of July's, Christmas and Birthday's together with his Grandma Donna and Grandpa Jim who lived over on Century Ct in Olympia. Since Jeramy was their first grandkid, he was spoiled rotten. He still to this day loves Taffy Cookies and Ginger Snaps that she got him hooked on. She made such an impact on his life and she was so incredibly special to him that he had to have her name be apart of our daughter as a way to always remember her and honor her.



Patricia, is her second middle name after my Grandma, who died of cancer when I was about 22 years old. There are no words to explain what an impact she had on my life, even to this day. She taught me everything I know and instilled an important sense of family in me. I idolized and looked up to her for so much. There isn't anything she wouldn't do for her family. She was proud and supportive of us no matter what. I know she is always with me because when I was graduating from college and was crying because she wasn't there, I looked up at all of my family and the only light in the whole building was shining on them which told me she was there. 2 weeks after she died and my Aunt died and we had the funeral at the same place, I had a hard time going into the building, I attempted a few times and failed, and on my final attempt I walked in and her favorite song was playing telling me she was there with me ane it was going to be alright. When I was trying on my wedding dress and kept crying that I wished my Grandma was here, right when I found "the dress" the wedding march went on the radio when no music was playing before and Andrea told me, "see Grandma is telling you this is the dress" I cried so much I couldn't breathe. And when I walked out of the room when Jeramy's Grandpa died, there were Christmas stockings that were hung outside his room and one of them read Pat H, another sign telling me she was there with me and everything would be ok and that she was watching out for me and always with me. Finally, the birth of my daughter. With everything that could have gone wrong with my hard pregnancy...it didn't. Since neither one of us was willing to give up the names of the women who had made such an impact on us, our little 3 pound 11 ounce baby who was 16 inches long had a name that was bigger than she was. But even though her name is long, it is strong and filled with love from people who we miss grately, but are now with us everytime we look into our little girls eyes.
With love to our Grandma's, thank you for giving us such a beautiful little girl who reminds us everyday of the love and memories we have with you!