For me, TAC is an acronym. In its core, is the meaning of my children’s names.

Tucker – Tucker is my oldest son. Naming your first child is unique experience. For me, I wanted my son’s name to be unique. My wife wanted Jacob. Jacob is a great name. I really do like it. Plus, you can even use Jake for short. However, Jacob was THE most popular name in the United States at the time of my wife’s pregnancy. The name Jacob certainly did not fit the mold for unique name. My wife and I went back and forth and the only name I can recall she was focused on was Jacob. Tucker is a derivative that came from a prayer in my church. The Pastor was praying for a person with the last name Ruckert and from that, the name Tucker was born. I wrote it on a piece of paper and handed it to my wife and her response was a firm “Yes.”

Addison – Addison is my oldest daughter. She is also my youngest daughter. Well, that is because she is my only daughter. She is also my favorite daughter too. I was on the unique train again, when coming up with a name for my daughter. This time my wife was stuck on Heidi. Heidi is a nice name, but I just wasn’t fond of it. There is a slight uniqueness to the name Heidi. It is not a super popular name. I had worked with a woman named Karisa and I really liked her name. THAT, I thought, was unique. My wife held onto Heidi and I loosely held onto Karisa. My wife also liked the name Karisa but she kept coming back to Heidi. Honestly, I had pushed for my son’s name and at the time we were not planning for more than two children. I backed off from leading on naming my daughter. I wanted my wife to have the final say. One day, I came in the house from somewhere and my wife said, “How about Addison ?” I found it unique and catchy and cute. I quickly agreed. Much to my dismay after my agreement, I found out the name was a top name for that time frame and as far as unique? Well…not so much. Then I asked my wife the root of where she came up with the name. Worse yet – The TV show, Scrubs. So now not only was the name popular it was certainly not unique. I will say this: Addison made a grand entrance to our lives. Her birth story is unique. It’s a story I will save for another time. The long story short, is my wife went into labor quickly and she delivered my daughter in our bathroom with me at the helm. Just my wife, me, my oldest son, the dog and 911. Yeah – unique and not so popular to have your baby in your house, eh?

Cole – Cole was our surprise baby. Ok, unplanned if we are honest about it. I was definitely determined for unique this time. I was out there. Dare I even tell you? Ok, I thought Striker was a kewl name. My wife was definitely not having it. My wife came up with Parker but that was too much like Tucker and then she chose Lee. I have a cousin named Lee so that was out too. Me? The best I could come up with was Striker. If I am completely honest, I was being a bit belligerent. I just wanted my for sure last child’s name to be special. While Cole itself is not exactly the most unique name, the origin of his naming is certainly unique. And quite special. I was picking up my daughter from our day care provider’s house. Her daughter was 15 at the time and often helped her Mom watch the kids. This was one of those days the daughter was helping, as her Mom was in the kitchen making dinner. Nicole grabbed Addison and all her stuff and met me at the front door. As we chit chatted on the way out the door and said our goodbye’s, I stepped out of the doorway on to the porch and offered Addison an opportunity to say goodbye to Nicole. Addison was only 2 years old at the time and her speech was not fully developed yet. Here was her Goodbye to Nicole. “Bye Cole.” Do I need to tell you what my wife said when I told her the story?  Our daughter named our youngest son Cole.

When we named our children, we had Hope. This is the Hope that was created in our marriage. This is the Hope we have as a family. Our children are our Hope. They are the Hope of the future. They are to be improvements of what my wife and I were given. Did I just say that? YES! That is the Hope. We Hope that our future is brighter. We Hope that the World becomes a better place. Our Children are our Hope. We as parents are responsible to help them find Jesus. Jesus is the HOPE. We are responsible as parents to obey God and show our children by our example how to obey God. We are to have Faith and demonstrate our Faith to our children so that they too will have Faith! Our Hope is that our children are the FRUIT of our obedience and Faith as parents. Our Hope is our children benefit from our hard work as parents to make a better path for them. We Hope to be blessed on our journey with Christ in our marriage and in our Family. We rejoice at the Gifts he bestows upon US.

I Hope that as I write and spread the word that you too are inspired in some way to share the message. The message of Hope. Any Hope.

What is your story of Hope?