Saturday, February 5, 2011

What's IN a Name?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN! :-)

Today, February 5th, is Ethan's 2-month birthday. At this very moment, as I type he was about 25 minutes old. I had held him only for a few minutes by now but he was soon whisked away to be tended to by the nurses. And now a whole 2 months has passed. Technically today is his second "booga month" birthday. He's my lil "Shugabooga" (because he is the sweetest thing EVER and give the SWEETEST kisses!). So we celebrate "booga months". :-) So happy 2nd Booga month Ethan! I'll show this to his little girlfriend at 16 and totally embarrass him. Better yet, I'll call him that in front of her. Ooooh, I'm bad! LOL

But the walk down memory lane - remembering his birth, reminded me that I hadn't given you the full explanation for his name. Ok ok, you might be thinking - Ethan is common enough, what more could there be to it? MUCH more! And so the story goes....

ETHAN: STRONG, POWERFUL
Long before I became pregnant we had a name. We called it often in reference to our future bundle of joy. We kept it close to the vest though for various reasons but between us, the name was a done deal, all we needed was the kid. The only problem was, the name was for a girl. We thought for sure that would be our first child since we had been divinely given the name so early in advance. But once we found out we were pregnant, it was clear that we needed a boy's name. After all, it was a 50-50 chance that it would be a boy. :-) So what would be his name??

I had been given a Names book when I became pregnant. I have always been fascinated with names and what they mean. I think they should be well thought out because after all, you will call that person that for the rest of their life. I believe that what you are called over and over again - you become or adapt to that. So names are very important. At first, I thought I had convinced Ezra that a JR was in order. He was ok with it for oh about 2 minutes, but he never wanted a JR and I couldn't blame him. So I turned to the book- which by the way has a GAZILLION names in it. So it was a PROCESS to look through them, but when I came to Ethan, I instantly connected with it. It's meaning was wonderful - ETHAN mean Strong and powerful. I like that. I wanted those to be a characteristics of my son. And I liked the name and so did Ezra. But little did we know that this too was a divine intervention. You see, thanks to a Bible Crossword puzzle book that we were doing at the time, we learned that Ethan was a biblical character. Ethan was an Ezrahite - a follower of Ezra the prophet. Woh, talk about JR on a new level! LOL. Not only was he an Ezrahite, but he was VERY wise, compared to Solomon himself - (who took wisdom to another level) - LOL). Check out 1Kings 4:31. A little more research showed that he was musically inclined possible a cymbal player in David's choir, even dabbling in writing songs himself. It is believed that he wrote the beautiful Psalm 89. At that point we knew - we're having an Ethan :-)

GRADY: NOBLE, ILLUSTRIOUS

I never had an opportunity to meet or to know Ezra's father, Grady, but for some reason I miss him. He passed away suddenly shortly after Ezra and I started dating. And because I never got to know him, I feel like there is a part of Ezra that I will never know. But what I do know is that his father was his Hero. He was VERY close to his father who was very instrumental in making him the wonderful man he is today. But not only was he important to Ezra and his immediate family but it just seems like this man touched a lot of lives in a positive way. When I am around the family (mother OR father's side), they speak so fondly of him. He was well loved and well respected. He was a father figure to many in the family. He was the go-to guy and he was about business. He was well respected in the community as a business leader and a servant leader at their church. He seemed to be a great man and from what Ezra tells me, we would have had a lot in common as well. He was such an important part of their lives (as a father should be) that we wanted to continue the lineage through Ethan. That being said Grady is Ethan's middle name. I love the balance that it gives his name. GRADY means noble and illustrious. It seems that Ezra's Dad lived true to his name and those same characteristics we want for Ethan as well.

So that's Ethan - Strong powerful, noble and illustrious, and many other wonderful characteristics. And he is already living up to his name. He has been trying to hold his head up since he was a week old. He legs are super strong as well. But do we expect?? we call him "strong" constantly, so he can't help himself! :-)

Well it's been fun sharing but while "Strong" is sleeping, "Brave" needs to be laying down too. So with that I will say Goodnight!

Until next time....
Marcia

2 comments:

  1. Oh that was beautiful! Great post, Marcie!

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  2. I know Ethan will live up to his name. What a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing!!!

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