Walking in the Dark with Faith

When I did my Ancestry search back in May of 2018, mainly because I am ADOPTED, I was hoping to find some siblings and other family members. I always left this part of my life, in the Lord’s hands, and figure IF and WHEN He wanted me to know anything about my biological family members, it would happen as HE willed it. I received the DNA test kit as a Mother’s Day gift that year (2018), and I knew it was time to find out whatever there was for me to discover about my family-good, bad, or otherwise.

One of the (many) blessings was finding family members who were alive and well, and willing to converse with me, either after I reached out to THEM, or they first reached out to ME.

One of those siblings happened to be my brother Chris on my bio father’s side. We met, and after a few years when I finally had a bit of time between school and moving, I wanted to finally change my name back to my maiden (family) name. I thought of incorporating my biological father’s name of GEIST in there, because it IS my family name, and it suits me exactly to WHO I am in Christ—GEIST = “ghost/spirit” in German. Many people a century or two ago with the GEIST name, would have a dove representing the HOLY SPIRIT, somewhere in their house, because of the association with their family name.

Anyone who knows me, and who I am in Christ, and being the servant of God that I am for Him, can easily see how much that was a “God Wink” connection between me and my family name.

So with the approval and blessing from my brother Chris, I took the last name and incorporated it into what would become my official name:
JEANNETTE -what my name was changed to (named after Jeannette DiCapua/DeMaio-my Nana), after I was officially adopted a year and a half after I was born, and was called:

ELIZABETH-my ORIGINAL birth name given to me by my biological mother Doris, before giving me up for adoption; so I took that name, and made it my MIDDLE name; taking that name of Elizabeth and using it as a middle name, allowed me to ❤️honor the woman who, despite many issues she had in her life, decided to give me life, and bless a family who could not have children, with a child. (McGRAW is my bio mom’s maiden family name)
GEIST—my biological name of my father, Robert, who I found out by my brother (and I actually have another brother Robert, who was named after our father) Chris, that he was a great ☺️dad, and an awesome cook!😋 Chris loved the idea of me using the family name, and that made it possible to honor my biological father that way.

MARCELLI—Rose and Ralph Marcelli tried to have children, but after a time, decided that it was not God’s will, and became foster parents. I was their third foster child they took in by Mid-March of 1965, after spending a couple of weeks in the hospital as “little orphan Elizabeth”😏; they already had two boys that were with them almost a year at that time, and desperately wanted a girl.
Ralph and Rose went through way too much red tape in this awful, demoncratic state (even way back then!) of NJ, to try and adopt me; they finally got the “green light” in September, 1966 to call me their own. After a year and a half of having to call me “Elizabeth/Lisa”, they finally changed my name to “Jeannette”. I was an official member of the Marcelli family, at least to them.
The MARCELLI surname means the world to me; THESE are the people who took me into their home, gave me their love, disciplined me, raised me to be a decent human being, treated me like their own flesh and blood child. I sure didn’t appreciate it all back when I was in my younger years (they both died within six months of each other, when I was 25/26 yrs old), but I miss them terribly now. I honor them by KEEPING the MARCELLI name alive and well. I may not have been a flesh and blood “Marcelli”, but I DID find out (and my parents would be THRILLED 😄😁at this!) via Ancestry a few years ago, that I DO have Italian blood in me, and —another God Wink—my ancestors are from around the SAME AREA😃as the Marcelli’s were (Naples)! How’s that for a GOD-MATCHED, HOLY SPIRIT INSPIRED adoption?😉😄😁😏

Some may wonder why, after being divorced, and able to go back to my maiden name, why I would go that extra step and take all FOUR names—JEANNETTE ELIZABETH GEIST-MARCELLI—yes, it’s a mouthful, but there is MEANING behind each name.

Jeannette (female name for JOHN)-YOHANNAN-“God is gracious”, from Yah-the shortened name of the LORD, and the verb “hanan”, to be gracious. Obviously, this name is found all over the Scriptures, such as John the Baptist, John the Apostle, the father of Simon and Andrew, etc.

Elizabeth-the Hebrew name ELISHEVA (Ex. 6:23; Luke 1:5). The name is made up of two parts-the first (Eli) is “my God” and the second (sheva) is the number of holy attributes: “seven”. Put it together, and you get, “My God of the Seventh” (sounds like “sabbath-which is a holy day to be recognized by the LORD God).

Another meaning for that name “sheva” is “swear”, which I’ve seen mostly as “My God is my Oath/Promise”; also, “(In) My God (I) swear”.

So there you go. A bit of a long explanation why I took my original birth name, both first and last, and incorporated it into my adopted first and last name—to give both sets of parents the honor due THEM, and to also recognize what the LORD GOD was trying to tell ME (finally), when that spiritual 💡💡lightbulb finally switched “on” fully, to understand WHO I AM in HIM. I am His DAUGHTER, one of many, and His SERVANT, because I finally (back in 2016) said “YES” to wholeheartedly following Him, hence the “title” if you will, on the address label.

So when I send out a birthday, Christmas, or some other type of card, or have to pay a bill, or whatever other type of correspondence that I have to make, my NEW address labels state THIS (and some of you have actually received something from me with the label ON it):

Servant of the Most High God
Jeannette Elizaabeth Geist-Marcelli

That is my WHOLE name; please use it, whenever you send correspondence to me. It means the world to me, because those who gave me LIFE, and those who RAISED me, meant the world to me, even though two of them, I never got to meet in this life. But I sure do appreciate what they did for me.

Thank you for reading this—I realize it was a longer post than usual.

Maybe you, the reader, should take the time and look up what the meaning of your names are; you may😉end up being quite surprised😄like I was!☺️