After almost 5 years of unexplained infertility we got pregnant. Just before 12 weeks I lost the baby. Three months later I got pregnant with Adaline. On the first baby’s due date, 03/14/2009, we “officially” named the baby Jordan Shiloh. (Coincidentally Jordan’s due date fell 2 days after I had my 20 week ultrasound with Adaline and discovered for certain that she was a girl.).

Shortly after finding out we were pregnant with Jordan, Cool Daddy and I were taking a walk and I said, “I’d like us to give the baby a nickname that we can call it until we find out whether it’s a girl or a boy. Any suggestions?” Right away he answered, “Biddle.” and I thought it was great. For the remainder of the pregnancy we called the baby Biddle. After the miscarriage we wanted to give the baby a real name, but we weren’t sure if it had been a boy or a girl. We decided to use a unisex name and Jordan and Shiloh were our favorites. I also liked that Jordan and Shiloh are Biblical place names.

Jordan is the river in the Bible where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. It was at Shiloh where Hannah prayed to God to give her a son and it was there where Samuel was later brought to live.

Jordan means “descending, flowing down” and Shiloh means “He who has been sent” and also “safe, peaceful, tranquil”. Together the name means “Descending, flowing down, He who has been sent safely, peacefully, tranquilly.” Quite honestly I didn’t even know that at the time that I picked the names. While having a name with special meaning was important to me, I just wanted to pick a unisex name that I liked the sound of and Jordan and Shiloh were my favorites. Now I think that the name is so fitting. While losing Jordan was one of the most painful experiences of my life (s)he left this world flowing down and had been sent safely, peacefully, and tranquilly to be with his/her Father in heaven.

I still often refer to the baby as “Biddle” since no one ever seems to know who I’m talking about when I say “Jordan”. I’m glad we gave our baby a name, even if we’re the only ones that remember it.