Oooh, what lovely names...

Now that the girls have been been born we can finally broach the subject of names. During pregnancy we had several suitable options in mind but due to a variety of disapproving looks and "helpful" suggestions we decided we'd keep Emily and Faith to ourselves until it was too late for anyone to comment (there's a hair salon in Fleet that will NEVER get another penny from me as a result of the staff's helpful suggestions - "You should call it Belle, that's my name", yea, thanks for that, is your surname End by any chance?)

So, anyways, Faith and Emily. Faith always struck us as being a strong name and yet quintessentially English at the same time. It also summed up the attitude we took to the whole IVF process, whatever happened, however bleak things looked, we always, always had faith that one day it work. Ok, so it might seem the teensiest bit corny to some but every time I look into the patient blue eyes of my daughter I'll know what it means to me and to us as a family. We may not have faith in the traditional, religious sense of the word, but in all other ways we have it by the bucket load.

Emily's name is rooted more in the here-and-now. Several years ago now we had the privilege to meet one of the most wonderful and warm human beings. Her name was Emily Potter, she was five years old and she was severely handicapped. Em had a condition called i-Cell, a terrible illness which affects growth amongst other things. It's very rare and there's no cure and most sufferers pass away within the first couple of years of life. Thanks to the devotion, courage and sheer bloody-mindedness of her parents Patrick and Mary, Em managed to make it to the age of six.

I got to spend an afternoon with her during a holiday to the US one year and it was in the space of those few hours that I think I finally realised I wanted to be a parent. I can't really explain what happened, it was just one of those moments in life when a switch flicks on, when something is changed forever and you don't realise it until it's happened. She was such a beautiful little girl, utterly charming and, despite her difficulties and lack of communication skills she wound me so tightly around her little fingers that even now it puts a smile on my face.

And that's one of the driving forces behind our decision to name one of our daughters Emily. To me it signifies triumph against adversity, the will to try and to accept and to adapt to that which we cannot change and I for one will be so proud to tell my Emily where her name comes from when she's old enough to understand.

So there you go, Faith and Emily Russell. I'm trying hard at the moment to find time to document the first week and a bit of life as a new dad but there's barely a moment to spare. Over the next few days I'll try to throw a few missives together on sleep deprivation, sterilising bottles, pram building and the consistency of the very delightful meconium, but right now I need to run as we've just fed and changed both kids and need to get out of the house before there's a tiny trouser explosion...