Aria Jackie Pegump

This is the picture we sent as a birth announcement to the University of Iowa and for our OB's wall of fame. We included her birth info, too.

Here is the email we sent to announce her arrival to all of our friends and family!
Aria Jackie Pegump was born on Friday, January 29 at 8:43 pm. She is 8 lbs. 15.6 oz. (We are trying to stay under that 9 lbs.:)) and 21 inches long. She is a perfectly healthy, happy baby and very adorable in our opinion! It was a long road to this miracle child and every step along the way was worth it!

Her Name:

Aria doesn't really have a special origin for us. A long time ago, I (Julie) taught swimming lessons to a little girl named Aria and have loved the name since. Justin agreed it was a cute and unique name and there was never any question or disagreement about it! We looked up the meaning and it depends on origin. Recently it is a form of Arianna, which means beautiful song or melody. If you go further back in history, it is said to be a form of the Hebrew Ariel, which means lion of God. We think both meanings are a fabulous description of our daughter!

Jackie has more meaning. Jackie was my (Julie) Grandmother's name. My Grandmother was a very special person. She taught pretty much everyone about God's love. She was constantly finding ways to tell us Bible stories and help us to understand God's love. She donated to just about every charity that existed and volunteered for every church function. I never really grasped how devoted she was to Christ until she died in 2005. When our family went through her belongings we found countless worn out Bibles, journals, notes on the back of envelopes, quotes, scripture, etc. everywhere. I knew my Grandma had a strong relationship with Christ, but I didn't know she spent so much time studying the Bible and journaling her thoughts. I learned that what my Grandma wanted most in her life was for her family and friends to trust Christ as their Savior, to study His word, to have a personal relationship with Him, and to do our best to live our lives like Him and love others like He loves us. I learned that you can't just go through the motions and be a true Christian. Those things we found really inspired me to become more like my grandma and to study the Bible more. Justin was transformed by these discoveries, too, and it has helped both of our relationships with Christ and our marriage. We hope we can continue my grandma's purpose and teach Aria about God's love and how to extend that kind of love to others as she grows and experiences this world.

Love,
Justin, Julie, and Aria Pegump