The Evolution of a Namesake

Many people have asked how we decided on Adeline's name. The short answer, "It's a family name on both sides, and it was the name of Derek and my first dance as husband and wife."

The long answer?

If you've read my blog Switzerland is for Lovers then you know the story of how Derek and I met. Well during our long distance, and actually even before we met, we started sending each other music in the mail. He, thankfully, introduced me to my favorite band of all time, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers or The Sixers as they are also know. And their music became the soundtrack to our relationship, every song I listen to, even today, triggers a memory. 

My brother older, Ryan, once said, "You know, the only place where I feel God might have messed up is not providing a soundtrack to our lives." A brilliant thought, really, and I've thought about what he said often. I've decided that had God provided that soundtrack, the Sixers would have been playing in my mind for the last six years because their music was there narrating every step of our story with their touching lyrics and cords...

Before Derek and I met I listened to the song Sweet Sophia: "When you showed up, you showed up right on time, an elegant sweetheart that just blew my mind. I guess the keys to my castle had always been there. There for the taking, but nothing could prepare me."

After we met and decided to have a long distance relationship the song Sweetest Goodbye played over and over on my stereo: "No matter how many times we've done this, and we've done it so many times; It never does get easier when its time to say goodbye. And I'll wear your memory underneath my shirt like an Indian tattoo. Crushed by conscience and mental slide show and a dream of kissing you."

When we visited each other and spent time playing all over the coast of California from wine tasting, to camping and hikes under the stars, to exploring San Fransico and running in the rain between giant Redwood trees. Derek said the lyrics to My Sweet Charade rang true to him: "...I'm making up for younger days, and if I don't talk I just get shy..."

But the lyrics often played from the song Days and we sang them loudly in the car on our adventures together: "A day like today just feels so good, everything is going just as it should. The mystery is understood, just like my momma said that it would. So act the way you dream you could, and dream the way an actor would. Cause you relieve the coulds of rain, and you remind me that there will be other days. And it goes without saying, if you catch me praying it's for days just like this one."

As I fell more and more in love with Derek, I hoped that one day the song Diamond would play as he proposed. The band has a wonderful tradition of playing this song and pulling a couple up on stage for it, and before the song began there was typically a proposal in front of everyone. Then they would play the song, Diamond: "Well honey, honey have you done your good deed today? You open up my green heart with the things that you say. Your melody is strong, so your song never ends. The drama has changes but you're still my best friend. You're my diamond. You're my diamond. Well darling, darling life's short, and its hard, and its gray, you make me see love where I'm inclined to hate. Your way with the boys, how you settle us down. You cut through the noise in my head, I have found. You're my diamond. Dancing diamond. So just hold me close, and don't ever let go..." The song is beautiful, you should really hear the full version. 

In between our time together I ran many miles to The America Song: "Well I live in America, and here is how it lies. Underneath my pillow are plans that got passed by, she said it'd be all right if I had to walk away, and the greatest view was from the edge, it had always been that way. I'm becoming beautiful, and it's so much harder than I thought. It only  feels like losing now, I guess I'll understand someday."

When we moved to Australia the song See You Later, See You Soon was our Anthem: "Shot through with adrenaline fire up my excited heart, and help me believe in myself, to get the starter to start. Fifteen burning balls of fire, ten days since we left. No one understands me like the whiskey on my breath. Ten minutes to showtime, Baby stop your crying. Everybody knows why, there's just no time. See you later. See you soon. See you later alligator, I will see you in the moon..."

And when Derek proposed he opened with some of the lryics to Days: "When the good day comes, you've got to do as the good day demands."

When we moved back from Australia, exhausted emotionally, physically, and financially, the lyrics to Howl at the Moon pulled on our heart strings: "I think it needs to be said, guess I'm just tired. I know you are too. I wanted to call and say I love you. I'm really just tired, I wish I could rest, this heart's busy pumping blood to my chest. I howl at the moon cause it helps me get through."

As we planned our wedding, we went through all the Sixers songs, and found so many that fit so perfectly with our life, beacause we had been living in them, and with them. And then we heard the song Oh Adeline. It was perfect. It was us. It was like our second set of vows to each other. Our Adeline, who will soon enter the world, was named after our song. Our first dance. She was named after our promise to each other.

Oh Adeline:

"If God is love and love is God,

Then everything I’m looking for is written in the flesh and blood.

If you pay attention, turn off the TV,

There is a station beyond your wildest dreams.

I’m gonna need a second heart for all this love,

I’m gonna need a better answer to the problems of the world.

Vivid is my eyesight,

It’s scary but I’m feeling so alive.

And everything is gonna be fine, fine, fine.

Fine, fine, fine.

Oh, Adeline.

I’m so completed now,

You have no idea just how

I’ve been affected.

You’ll never be neglected

In these arms of mine.

There’s gonna be a lot of judgments being made,

And it’s ok cause sometimes everyone’s afraid.

And all the money in the world will never save you,

If the people who surround you can’t make time.

And everything is gonna be fine, fine, fine.

Fine, fine, fine.

Oh, Adeline.

I’m so completed now,

You have no idea just how

I’ve been affected.

You’ll always be protected

In these arms of mine.

Yeah, cause everything is different in the world today.

People so divided by the things they think about,

God and religion, the promise got broken,

I don’t need a book when I could stare into your eyes

I see palaces built before any known tongue was spoken.

This little light of mine,

I’m gonna let it just shine, shine, shine.

Shine, shine, shine.

On Adeline.

I’m so completed now,

You have no idea just how.

If you’re lost, you will be found.

You will never be without these arms of mine.

(I’m so completed now)

In these arms of mine.

(You have no idea just how)

In these arms of mine.

(If you’re lost, you will be found)

Oh, in these arms of mine.

(You will never be without)

(I’m so completed now)

In these arms of mine.

(You have no idea just how)

If you’re lost you will be found.

You will never be without.

You will never be without.

So pay attention, turn off the TV.

There’s nothing on the screen that’s not in front of me.

If, if love is God and God is love,

Then everything that is, is everything that ever was."

Though the years we've seen more Sixers shows than we can count, each one better than the last. We've even got to work a few of them as merchandise people. We have posters that are signed by the band,  framed lyrics to Days and Oh Adeline written out by Stephen Kellogg himself, and many, many t-shirts. But more than that, we have a soundtrack to the life we built together. 

Really, God did provide the soundtrack; we were just too busy dancing and singing to stop and say, "Thank you." Thank you, God, for the beautiful music and for the evolution of Adeline's namesake, it's been an incredible adventure, I can't wait to see where you will guide us next, and I can't wait to hear the tunes that play on our way!

For now the Sixers' songs Gravity, My Favorite Place and We Belong Here are my anthems. They are worth looking up, I think I've bombarded you with too many lyrics today.

Here is a live recording off of You Tube. The version on their CD and the one we played for our first dance did not have Kit's piano solo on it. This band of musicians is just so incredibly talented. Enjoy.