We have named him....

His name is Zechariah.

Zechariah is a biblical name. His story is as follows: Zechariah was married to Elizabeth and they were not able to conceive. So much time had gone by that they were actually starting to give up on the idea of having a child of their own. One night the archangel Gabriel came to Zechariah and told him that although he and his wife were advanced in age they would give birth to a son who would be of the utmost importance to the Messiah. Zechariah doubted the angel and so God rendered him mute until this vision came true. Indeed, they had this son and on the day of his circumsicion Elizabeth announced that his name be "John". This stunned the guests, as John was not a family name. Everyone looked to Zechariah for confirmation of the baby's name. Zechariah was able to speak for the first time since the angel visited him and he stated out loud that the baby would be named John. This "John" grew up to be John the Baptist.

Nathanael had actually came accross this story randomly in church this last weekend. We were actually suppose to be reading out of the book of Luke and Nathanael was doodling and not paying attention in church (LOL) and when he turned the page he noticed the next book was on Zechariah and the pic he drew/doodled was very similar to the picture next to Zechariah's name in our bible. He read the story of Zechariah and whispered to me "I found our son's name" and showed me. Later when we talked about it Nathanael said he felt that we had much in common with Zechariah in the bible ie the inability to have a child for so long, the "vision" (some of you know I've actually had quite a few dreams of babies before we became pg and always when I was feeling most discouraged). Then Nathanael researched more about this story and found that the day that Zechariah saw his vision of the angel equates to Nathanael's birthday in modern day terms.

So that's his name. We will not change the spelling to any more popular ways, and leave it as is in the bible. Nathanael also likes this biblical spelling because it's similar to his own name. "Nathanael" is how the name is spelled in the bible, yet we've never met anyone who spelled it that way, they always spell it with an "iel" at the end.

Lastly, "Zechariah" means "God remembers" pertaining to his covenant to us: Jeremiah 29:11 says "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ......we believe He remembered us and our dream to have a child when he finally blessed us with Zechariah.