Our New Son's Name... and the Story Behind It

Y’all know we’ve been pondering and pondering the right name for our son. We were down to Daniel, David, Nathan, Nehemiah and Peter. We talked and talked and just couldn’t exactly put our finger on the right name. As those were all men of strong character, we began looking at meanings for the names:
Daniel - God is my judge
David - beloved
Nathan - gift
Nehemiah - comforter
Peter - rock
Nothing was clicking. I liked the meanings of all the names except Nehemiah. “Comforter“. That just seemed odd to me.

One afternoon I was sitting around talking with Caleb, Molly and Sam and one of them asked about names again. We began going through the list discussing the merits of each name when we came to Nehemiah. “Comforter”. It just felt funny to me…

Then I had a flashback… I saw myself sitting at Luke’s bedside (when he was in the hospital after his accident). He was just laying there, looking almost not alive… But from the first moment I got to the hospital, and the entire time we were there, the baby was moving. Moving, moving, moving. He was so incredibly active. His activity level went from normal to *wow* almost instantly. I was sitting there rubbing my belly, talking to the baby, looking at Luke. It was so bittersweet.
Later I was telling Jaynie how odd it was to me that the baby became suddenly so overwhelmingly active while we were in the hospital (and his activity level returned to normal as soon as we left) and she said “I think he was trying to comfort you… “

Wow.

It just all came in a flash and the children were looking at me wondering where my mind was. I told them the thoughts that I had just had and they all smiled and nodded in agreement that Nehemiah must be his name. It was just such an intense moment and everything clicked. When Tony came in I shared what we had just experienced and he had the same feelings. It was such a confirmation.

Luke’s accident changed all of us. Life will never be exactly the same. God is teaching/has taught us so much from this. It’s very fitting that this child have a name reflective of that time in our lives.

Nehemiah. Yes.