5 Walls

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.

 

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.