JONAH

Well it took Jonah about 3 weeks to put on 1/2 pound... and less than a week to get the next 1/2 pound! Today he's tipping the scales at a heft 3 lbs 8 oz. So he's progressing well since they've beefed up his calories.

He's getting a new medicine for reflux problems that migh be causing him to drop his oxygen saturation when he eats. he's been doing well with his feeding tube - they have about 28 ML going through it every 3 hours over the course of 60 minutes.

He's been finding more time to open his eyes and be alert lately - which is cool.. he has such a small face! (hopefully I'll get a picture up soon!)


Since we had a reason for isaac's name, I suppose we better talk about our reasons for Jonah's name.

First, the middle name, William. It's Cindy's Dad's name - and we really like him! I tried for another "David ____" But she said "oh no, this one we get to name after MY dad!" we flirted with it as his first name, calling him "Billy" for a while - but I was against it.

I think we ended up with Jonah for a couple of reasons.
1. Jonah was as unexpected as they come... Isaac was only 4 months old or so and we were only a couple months into our move to Ohio. The last thing on our list was the desire to have another baby. But lo and behold... there he was... on his way!

One thing we really struggled with was why God was calling us to this. Why here? Why now? We're tired! In fact it was going to take most of the pregnancy to accept the fact that this was really happening. It was really, really hard to accept and even harder to "enjoy" the pregnancy with so many questions and conflicting emotions.

in the midst of the whole thing, I frequently remembered a conversation we had with some very wise friends early last year as we were trying to decide to move to Israel or not. One thing they said regarding where we are called was, "no matter what, you can be very sure of the calling God has on you to be parents. He has certainly called you to this and that should be your starting point."

In the midst of questioning why God would call us to parent this baby it reminds us of Jonah's issues with God calling him to Nineveh in the Bible. By naming him "Jonah" I hope we never forget what we are called to - and not to run away from it. God has called us to be the parents of Isaac AND Jonah. Yes they are close. yes, they like to stay in the hospital. yes, they have problems. yes, they will be difficult at times in the future. But we never want to forget the specific calling that God has place on us, and only us.

Secondly, "Jonah" means "dove" in Hebrew. You can see a lot of examples in the Bible of doves - and often it represents God's actual presence (think Genesis 1 & Jesus' baptism). In naming him "dove" we hope that he will be someone who brings God's presence wherever he is - even in the NICU. That wherever Jonah is, God would show up and be present. it also reminds us that God IS with us and present in our family. It gives us something to think about wherever we are with Jonah, at the hospital, little league, school... how are we bringing the presence of God to the people we interact with?


So that's the story behind his naming.... plus we really liked "J" names... definitely couldn't do "jacob" and Isaac... and cindy didn't like "Jack" or "James" or "Jeroboam"