When You Call My Name Out Loud

"Would you be the wind to blow me home?

Would you be a dream
On the wings of a poem?
And if we were walking through a crowd,
Well you know I'd be proud...
If you call my name out loud.


Do you suppose that I would come running..
Do you suppose I'd come at all?
I suppose I would."


I just love this Dispatch song. Lately I have been listening to a lot of very simple acoustic songs with the hope that it would inspire me to pick up my guitar again...


But that is an aside.


One very underestimated change I've dealt with since getting married is my name change. My whole life I have been Rebecca Marie Mahoney, (and literally that full name when I was in trouble, in other words--often). But those days are over. Thanks to the Social Security Card I received in the mail yesterday, I am now officially Rebecca Mahoney Tochman!! 


No hyphen, no combined last name. I dropped 'Marie' and now have a new middle name. 


That was a very hard day for me...at first. I absolutely LOVE 'Mahoney' because of all that it represents. It reminds me of our family of six (which has grown to eleven, and will continue to expand...), and the cross country road trips we went on. The many, many moves we braved together, our snow forts and family vacations to National Parks, the Caribbean and Europe. It reminds me of our petty sibling spats, and our car-pooling each other to school as we learned to drive.


But that was a different time. And just as my two lovely sisters-in-law entered our family (followed by my cute-as-can-be niece and nephew!!), and our family only got bigger and better, so now again, things must change. 


I have come to realize that I am still a Mahoney. I still have those childhood memories and I still have my loving and supportive family. But now it is new and improved. I have two sets of parents, five wonderful siblings, and one amazing husband. A name is not what binds us, it is the love, trust, encouragement, and faith we share that holds us together.


When Brian proposed to me, he offered me a new family, our family. We are apart of the Tochmans' and the Mahoneys', but we are also our own entity. And I am SO proud to be his wife, to have his name.  It is no loss at all, but only gain, and that is what I have realized as I have looked at my new name on my card.


I am so thankful for all of the support he and I have as we start our life together and I know that no matter what, our families will be there for us. 


So I am officially a Tochman. And so very proud of that fact.