Once it's embroidered, there's no going back!

Our first Christmas together, Jarrod got us these awesome stockings. I am very sentimental about Christmas "things," so this meant so much to me. They are beautiful... and I loved that he thought and cared about starting our Christmas traditions enough to purchase us meaningful and beautiful stockings. This will be a hard gift for him to top.

When he got those stockings, I think I almost immediately looked online to see what others they made for our future children. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the kids stocking!!! I wanted to order them right away before they stopped making them, but they are gender specific... and we hadn't even talked about timing of our children let alone the guessing quantity and gender of them. So within days of finding out I was pregnant, I looked to make sure they still made that stocking. They did! But then I had to wait to find out if it was a boy or a girl. After finding out what it was, I again looked to see if they made the stocking. They did! But then I had to wait till we named the kid so we could have matching embroidery. So now it's official... the kid has a name, and a beautiful stocking!! :-)

For those of you who are first learning about the name, the decision came from the Levites decision to remain faithful to God when everyone else chose to worship the golden calf when Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the law. Because of the Levites faithfulness, God set them apart for his special service and they became the priests. Because of their role as the priests, they are the only tribe that did not receive any land as their inheritance, rather they had to surround the other tribes so that those everyone else could have access to the priests. So in essence, their inheritance was service to God, rather than anything material.

I think this is so powerful, and the two main lessons that I want to pass down to my son. He is going to live in a world that teaches an opposing view to what his mom and dad want to teach him. Jarrod and I have been struggling about bringing a child into this fallen world, and how hard it is going to be to raise him to remain faithful to God when everything / everyone around him is going to tell him to "be happy," "be successful," "get rich." I want to teach him to follow God no matter the cost, even if it means that he doesn't gain any "wealth" (or land, in the case of the Levites). I don't want his goal in life to "be happy," I want him to have a joy that comes from the knowing and understanding of God, and that his riches will come from his service to God. I want him to follow God when everyone around him chooses to worship the golden calf.

We haven't settled on a middle name yet (and are open to suggestions!).