What's In a Name?

It was really important to us to choose a name for our son. This little life had been without a name for most of his in utero life and we just felt it necessary to give him a name, after all, he IS a person and he IS our son. Although not legally yet, he's our son through and through.

I mentioned in an earlier post that during the very first call from our caseworker giving us the news that we were matched, I asked a rather natural question, was the baby a boy or a girl. Upon hearing the caseworker say, "It's a boy!", something inside of me yelled out the name Joshua. It was seriously almost like I recognized him as my son and I called out his name in excitement. It was one of the strangest moments but one that I hope I never forget.

So...his first name is Joshua. Not only is it the name my heart cried out immediately but also happens to be in Matt and mine's top two or three name choices for boy names.

Joshua is a strong name. Joshua was a warrior in the Old Testament. From my understanding he was a man that showed huge courage in the face of great responsibility. He was like the right hand man to Moses through the 40 years that the Jewish people wandered the desert. Joshua successfully led the people of God out of the desert to conquer their enemies and enter the promised land. Some scholars say that Joshua was like a foreshadowing to Jesus. What Moses, who represented the law, was unable to accomplish, Joshua did, by leading the people into the promised land. This points to what Jesus did on the cross, defeating the enemy, satan, and leading people to eternity with God (the promised land!).

So, I pray my son will be a true warrior for the Lord. That through obedience, faith and dependence on God, he will bring others to Christ in his life.

Choosing Joshua's middle name was a bit more challenging. There are SO many great names! Matt wanted us to pray through a few for a little while to make sure we choose the right middle name for him. So we prayed.  And after a little while, Matt felt confident that his middle name was supposed to be Dominic. I would say that we both really like this name but Matt really sealed the deal on choosing this middle name for Joshua, which I like that he chose it for him. :)

Saint Dominic was a spanish priest and the founder of the Order of Preachers, the Dominican order. Saint Dominic was named after Saint Dominic of Silos, who is the patron saint of hopeful mothers. He was born into a wealthy family but also a holy one. His mother was beatified by Pope Leo XII in 1828. Pretty cool. He was a scholar of theology and the truth and teachings of the Church were things he spent his life defending, in an age where great heresy engulfed the world. But he was also a man of great charity and love. When a famine hit Spain in 1191, Dominic gave away his money and sold his clothes, furniture and precious manuscripts to feed the hungry.

Our prayer is that our son, Joshua Dominic, will be a warrior for the Lord and defend and spread Christ's truth through faith, obedience to God, and love, into a world saturated by relativism.

"Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel." And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the Lord our God and obey him."- Joshua 24:23-24 

OH and one really awesome God thing. After we had chosen the name Joshua Dominic for our son, our caseworker scheduled our trip to meet our birth mother for the first time. It's next week, on August 8th (prayers would be great please!) and I noticed yesterday that August 8th is the feast of Saint Dominic!! How awesome is that? The very first time we are near our son and hopefully feel him kick will be on his feast day! God is good and always showing us, He's looking out. :)