Cole's name.

Yesterday, 4 years ago, my beloved grandfather, "Pop", went to be with the Lord. His name- John MILES Ledden.

And because I never got around to sharing about how we decided on Cole's name, I thought today was a good day to do so.
Cole: We just liked the name. We don't have anything significant about Cole other than we liked it, it sounded good with Dunn, and it passed our "sounds good in Kindergarten, on the football field in highschool, and as an adult" test. We read hundreds of names and it was like we just knew that this little guy inside was named Cole. That's it.

But Miles...Our Cole MILES is named after Pop. In honor of him. I LOVED LOVED LOVED my Pop. Still do. One of the last things I said to him was, "Thank you for loving me so well." He did. He had a way of lighting up the room with his stories and questions and desire to know what was going on. He set a wonderful example of how to love your spouse as he loved Nana in this way. He loved his family and he loved the Lord. And this is what I desire for my little Cole. That he would love people well. That someday he would love his wife unconditionally. That he would make people laugh and people would enjoy being around him. That he would love God with all his heart, mind, and soul. And I'll tell Cole all about his "Great Pop." The one that took me to "Creepy Crawly Bridge" and pretended to see alligators down there. (Funny how that one alligator looked so much like a rock and was always in the same place!) How he would try to throw me in jail and give me a ticket for going too fast on my little big wheel. How we would build block towers together. How he would always tell the story about me refusing to put on my coat with him at the store. How he would hug me so tight it would hurt sometimes. My heart hurts thinking about it. Thinking about him. I miss him so much, but my son will know. He'll know how special he was/is to me.

And though the books may not have this meaning next to "Miles" in their name dictionary...this is what it means to me. And this is what it will mean to Cole.

Love you, Pop. Give Jesus a high five for me.