We are excited to announce the arrival of the 5th Wall. John
Henry Wall (Jack) was born January 8. He weighed in at 8 pounds 13oz right in
the middle of his two sisters. He and
mama are doing great. He nurses and sleeps pretty well so far. We really hope
that continues. His sisters fight over who gets to hold him and give him kisses
and we figure we can get rid of their toys as Jack has their complete focus at
this point.
Jack put us through the waiting game not showing up until 3
days after his due date. As such, we made him wait on a final decision for his
name for a full day. Some of you were told after his birth that his name was
Jack Henry Wall. Tracey and I had come to that point and were pretty settled on
that. We chose Jack because it was like
John but not exactly. When I called my mom after his birth, she asked me where
did Jack come from and I gave her that exact answer. But saying it out loud
felt wrong.
Later that night, I went back to the house to put our girls
to bed before going back to the hospital to spend the night there with Tracey
and our baby boy. While home, I was praying and in the midst of that prayer,
the story of the birth of John the Baptist was impressed upon me. Especially
the part where Zechariah wrote down "His name is John" and then his
tongue was loosed. Before going back to the hospital, I read the passage and
also the passage where John is preaching in the wilderness and baptizes Jesus and I felt God telling me that our boy's name was John.
After reading these things, I went back to the hospital and talked to Tracey
about what I was feeling. After discussion and prayer during the night and then
again the next day, we decided to write down John Henry Wall on his birth
certificate paper work.
John is also my father's name and Henry was my grandfather's
name. I am named after my dad and great grand dad (John from my father and John
Nathan from my great grandfather). My father is named for his dad and
grandfather (John Nathan his grandfather and Haskel his dad's middle
name). Tracey and I have tried to give
our kids a heritage with each of their names and Jack was supposed to do that
but it didn't feel complete. Now he has the full heritage to live to and not a
"not exactly" heritage.
More than that though is the story of John the Baptist. It meant
something for me to write that down as his name despite the fact that we had
already told people his name was Jack. Once Zechariah wrote down "His name
is John" he tongue was loosed. God had also laid that on my heart and it
was great to follow that lead despite the embarrassment of changing his name
after we had already told people a different name.
John was also a voice in the wilderness. As I wrote about in
other posts, I have been through my own wilderness experience and have been
coming out of that. Part of that is my son calling me out of that time because he needs me
to raise him well and show him the Joy that comes from a life in Jesus. Now
that we have listened and our son has a name that we feel God has given us, my
joy is full at this point.
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| The girls first introduction! They love their new brother! |
If you would like to see some more pictures check out this website bellababyphotography.com (password: gobr0109wall) to see some professional pictures taken in the hospital.
