Are you there God? It's me Ju Young

It's a funny, quirky thing, that whenever I'm in dire straits and I begin to pray, I tell the Lord, "it's me Ju Young."  I know He knows who I am; it's not that I have to introduce myself.  It's just my way of saying,"This is serious." Perhaps I'm saying it more to myself than to the Lord.  My American name is Judy Louise, a strong American name with hints of Kentucky and banana pudding.  However, I was born into this world in a small Korean hospital and was immediately named Ju Young.  Two years later when my American step-dad adopted me and married my mother, he gave me the name Judy Louise.  I like my American name and I'm glad I didn't have to face all the rigmarole of having a strange foreign name people can't remember or say. Besides, I was teased enough as a kid I didn't need an odd name too.  Judy is what everyone calls me, it's what I have always gone by, I like it's meaning; praise.  That's a good Christian name.

Now Ju Young, that is altogether different, I don't exactly know why my mom chose that name for me, perhaps my grandparents suggested it.  I don't even know what it means.  When I went to Korea, it's what all my Korean relatives called me.  They don't know me as Judy.  You see, Ju Young carries my birth and my situation at that time in it.  It carries all my Korean history and heritage.  It carries things I know about myself and things I don't know.  I feel like it's not something I take lightly.  It means a lot.  Ju Young was the baby, who was born to the single mother.  Ju Young was the little girl that no one knew how they would take care of.  Ju Young was the girl God took care of and gave a new life to, in America.  So it's the name I use when I need rescuing, when I feel helpless and lost.  It's what I say to God when I want to remember that there are no accidents with Him, that He hears, He sees and He answers.