Darren LeBlanc

A couple years back, we were on staff at First Assembly of God church in Shrewsbury NJ. I was an engineer by day and a youth pastor by night. That time was very hard for us. I was working 40+ hours as an engineer and 40+ hours in the church. We were trying find the direction in life we needed to take…and we kept hitting brick walls. Our hearts were so for the students that we served every week…but we were just breaking as we worked too hard keeping multiple jobs (misty worked full time as a teacher and helped me with youth ministry as well). I remember Misty’s feeling like she was at the end of her rope (can’t imagine what she’d have done if she knew what the next 2 years held). Then Misty got pregnant and things started to change.

It was about that time, that our tenure at Shrewsbury came to close. We wanted to address the church and let everyone know that we were moving to another church. We knew it would be difficult for us and for some of the students.

It just happened that the week we were scheduled to tell the church we were leaving, ended up to be the very week that we felt was right to let everyone know that Misty was pregnant. So that Sunday morning, I took the platform and gave a short (knowing me, probably over-dramatic) explanation of why we were leaving and at the very end tagged on a line about how Misty was pregnant. It was not intended to be anything but an anecdotal afterthought. Simply for informational purposes. Well, let me tell you – EVERYONE now had something comfortable and happy to talk with us about. It allowed people to talk with us but have a common thread outside of the uncomfortable move situation. It was like, our little girl, still unborn, brought peace to a situation that so often goes awry. 

Well, that single church experience was hardly the sum total of this little girl’s peace offering. Over the next few months she brought joy into Misty’s life like nothing else could. Even that October, when Misty had the first seizure in years….even then, there was a peace that we didn’t understand. Like we didn’t have to worry about cancer….we just needed to focus on our soon coming daughter. We deferred having an MRI till she was born and of course you all know that we found the cancer growing. But it was ok. Misty had something to live for now…someone who needed her. And through it all, this little girl has brought peace into our lives.

We spent a good bit of time thinking about names. One day it was like a truck hit us. We needed to stop looking at names and start looking at meanings. We knew above all else that this soon-coming little girl had brought peace into our lives.

So we named her Olivia. Taken from olive branch, the name symbolizing peace. Also biblical reference to the olive plant symbolizes fruitfulness, beauty and dignity. That’s my girl. I think she has a lot of peace left to offer the world. Can’t wait to see what that is.