Ezra was born on June 4th at 12:43 am. That little fact implies a story, but I will save that for Jodi to tell. I would just like to talk about his name.
EZRA:
We like Hebrew names. Our other sons are Asa Jacob, Judah David and Reuben James [James is a modern iteration of Jacob] So we were looking for another boy name from the bible. I have pushed for Abraham and Moses in the past. We also talked about Isaiah, Silas, Simon, and Titus. But Ezra kept sticking in our mind. Ezra was sent by King Cyrus of Persia back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. The post below also give a good description of Ezra.
One of our pastors posted this on my FaceBook wall.
Ezra means “God Helps.” I don’t know if this feeling will remain but from when we found out Jodi was expecting till now my thoughts have been drawn to our daughter Micah, whom we never got to meet. We did not plan his name with this in mind, but he has in some part embodied that message to us, God helps.
ROBERT:
We had a difficult time deciding on a middle name. Each of the other boys middle names had been family names but also Biblical names. We didn’t have any other obvious choices in that category. We had been thinking of Robert, which is Jodi’s dad’s name. He passed away in 2006 and we felt like it would be fitting to remember him that way at this time. But we were not sure. When he was born he did not yet have a middle name. We were leaning toward Robert. Then a little after he was born my dad called. He asked if we had a middle name picked out. I indicated we had not decided. He said, “I’d like to throw one in, you might have already thought of it….I don’t know” In that moment I thought he was certainly going to say “Kenneth.” Kenneth is my middle name, my dad’s first name, my grandpa and great grandpa’s middle name. But then he said “what about Jodi’s dad’s name, Robert?” I know that Jodi really wanted to give him that name, I am very thankful to my dad for helping us make the final decision.
So that’s the story behind his name. We are so proud to have 4 boys. We know that God has blessed us beyond measure. We know that life is a gift and we give thanks for all we have.
Monday morning Jodi had a regular Dr. appointment. I had been texting with her about how I wished I could be there to hear the heartbeat. [Who wouldn’t rather hear a little baby heartbeat instead of sitting in a cubical at work on a Monday.] Jodi agreed to record the heartbeat with her phone so I could listen to it later. A little time passed when she sent a text that they couldn’t hear the heartbeat with the monitor so they were going to do an ultrasound and that I should probably come home. Once I was driving I called and stayed on while she went in for the ultrasound. Hoping and praying that everything was ok. Then I heard Jodi softly say, “there’s no heartbeat.”
james k light 