July 20, 2008

And He Shall be Called

Heather and I have been searching for the perfect name for our son. It's been difficult to find one with a meaning we like and a sound we enjoy. We've joked about names like Luke Warm, or Intel Inside, and the like. While we did briefly consider Luke or Lucas, we eventually decided against them.

Before we divulge our final answer, we'd like to share a few other names we've found along the way.

Abimelech--"My father is king." I personally liked this one a lot, but we eventually decided it was a bit too pride-inducing in me.

Benoni--"Son of my sorrow." We considered this one due to Heather's hormone-induced tears, but, like Jacob, decided not to curse our son. We didn't want to name him Benjamin either, though.

Jabez--"Borne in pain; sorrow." Similar to Benoni, but with pop culture behind it! So, double no.

Lehi--"Jawbone." 'Nough said.

So, you ready? Have we dragged it on long enough? Shall we say, "Come back tomorrow, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel."?

Alright, fine. I'll tell you now. Now, you can't laugh, okay? 'Cause we're serious about this name. Sure, it's unusual, but that's one of the reasons we liked it. If you don't like it, send any critical emails to I'mNotListening.com.

Without any further ado (though thinking about it, that PHRASE is 'further ado'!), our son's name is--

You ready?

BENIAH MARK!!!

Put together, this means "God has Established" this "Mighty Warrior."

Mark is my middle name, and has an excellent meaning. I'm sure it needs little introduction to all of you.

But, I know what you're REALLY thinking. (Yes, I AM a precognitive psychic. Deal with it.) You're thinking, "Beniah? Where'd they pull up that name?" Well, I'm glad you asked yourself that. In historical times, there was a man named David. He was a Jewish king, adept at war. He had many mighty men that fought with him. One of them was Benaiah. Here are some references:

2 Samuel 8:18
2 Samuel 20:23
2 Samuel 23:20-23, 30
1 Kings 1

To sum up these passages, he was one of the mightiest warriors in David's army. David obviously trusted him greatly, as evidenced by the end of 2 Samuel 23:23--"David put him in charge of his bodyguard."

When Adonijah rebelled against David, he didn't even invite Benaiah to join him. (1 Kings 1:10). This may have been because of a personal slight, but I think it had to do with Benaiah's loyalty to David.

In regards to the change in spelling (from Benaiah to Beniah), when we first chose the name, we were pronouncing it Ben-I-ah, not Ben-A-ah (think Isaiah, but with Ben). Though we later discovered our mistake, we decided to stick with our initial pronunciation. We changed the spelling because, as Heather so aptly put it, "Silent letters are stupid, because they're wastes of perfectly good letters."

Wow. Talk about text-heavy! Here're a few pics for those of you with short attention spans.





July 14, 2008

July 4, 2008

Half Way There

I am officially half way done with this pregnancy (technically it's 55 % of the way done since this is being posted when I am 22 weeks pregnant)! A couple of weeks ago, we were up at Kim and Andy's for Donny's 1st birthday party and was able to have Joann take some 20 week pregnancy photos.

Here are some of our favorites.







You can find more great pictures on Joann's blogsite.
Aside from seeing family, one of the best moments for me was when we were all in the living room watching Donny's present being opened up amidst the squeals and laughter of my nephews when my son started kicking and moving around. I wasn't slouching like I usually do when he kicks, so my guess is that he heard everybody and was trying to join in. Then again maybe my imagination is overactive.

A couple nights ago, Tim was able to feel his son move for the first time. I was reading a book that was propped on my stomach (pregnant bellies make excellent tables) when I felt him kick and saw the book bounce up a bit. I looked at Tim and said, "Was that a gas bubble?" So Tim put his hand on my belly and our son kicked again, rather fiercely! I can't feel him move all the time, but when I do it's like a punch in the gut (that was Tim's addition). I am starting to get an idea of how active he's going to be when he is outside of the womb. *Sigh* I am excited for that, though.