What will we name the baby??

A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth. Ecclesiastes 7:1

Will and I have had our eye on some names for a while... even before this little baby became a part of our lives.

Will and I take names really seriously. We know that God takes names seriously. Look all throughout the Bible and you will see that the meanings of the names are nothing short than who God saw them to be... good and bad. God often changed people's names when they walked into a higher calling with Him. God sometimes named people before their birth because they were called to such a great purpose, like John the Baptist, Jedidiah, Solomon, or the Messiah.

So, anyway... we not only hope that our child already has a high calling given from the Lord, but that God will give our child a name that can carry it throughout his/her life. I pray over the baby every day and lay hands on it... Will does too. I pray that it would encounter the Holy Spirit, even in the womb. That it would come out into the world already so familiar with the voice of God. I even pray that it would have encounters like John the Baptist did... that he leapt in the womb at the presence of the Holy Spirit. That literally blows my mind.

(which is another reason why I am so passionate against abortion, but that's another subject).

Babies, in the womb, have such a high calling... just like any one of us may have. God looks upon these babies as HIS children. So many people have gotten so comfortable and too familiar with the ways of the world and the ways they dishonor a human life in the womb.

So, that leads me into NAMES (which you've probably been waiting for for the past 5 minutes of reading haha).

God gave us a name when we were reading our bibles together when we were engaged. We randomly said, "oh, that would be a cool name for a kid"... we also loved that this particular man in the Bible was a very sought after prophet who spoke with kings and said "whatever the Lord says to me, that I will speak." The king called for only ONE man who could come give the word of the Lord but he hated him because his words were "evil" (according to him). We love how bold He was to say the word of the Lord weather anyone liked it or not. (1 Ki 22:8)

Then we were watching the Truth Project and the guy said that his grandson was named this same name and we thought it was strange because we had never heard the name before. We prayed right then for our future children and asked God to give us the names that HE wanted... not that we wanted. I have even heard of people not wanting to name their child something that they knew God wanted... and then they would have a dream of God writing it on a chalkboard. Wow... talk about a sign.

So, that's the story in this name. We really feel the peace of God on it. I had someone prophesy over me about a year ago that God was wanting me to picture my future children in my mind and that, if I did, God would be faithful to give me visions of their life. And I really feel like that has happened. I am asking for more though!

Micaiah is the name. Pronounced meh-KY-uh. Apparently the real pronounciation is mai-KAY-uh...but we thought that sounded girly haha.

So, if it's a boy, his name will probably be Micaiah Gabriel.

Micaiah means "who is like God?" ... which is the question we want our children to be focused on their entire lives.

Gabriel means "God is my strength"...which will be a really cool thing for him to look on his whole life and know that God truly is his one strength.

We would love for our child/man of God to know what His name stands for and to be confident in walking in that.

We decided that we would use as many Hebrew names as we could. There aren't many options... most of them are weird. Like Yanichel and Mordechai... ha ha.

But, for as many we can, we would love at least one of their names to be Hebrew.

As for a girl... I just randomly thought of this name one day and really liked it. And then I just happened to look it up and it was Hebrew and I loved the meaning. So, I talked to Will about it and he loved it.

Shiloh. Which means "his gift" and also "peaceful" -- it would completely be the truth that the little girl would be a gift from God for us after all I went through health wise during the midst of getting pregnant with her. I could also just picture a child in love with the Lord and having a peace on her.

Then (I've only told a few people this)... when I was taking my pregnancy test for this baby I looked at the product number on the package and it was "SHLO" with some numbers after it. I laughed at the time because I thought it would be funny if I ended up being pregnant and I had just recently thought of that name a couple days before.

Coincidence? I don't know. :) Probably.

We don't have a middle name yet for Shiloh but we have rummaged through some.

Here's some we came up with (or... I did) and their meanings...

-Ana (grace, favor)

-Eden (delight)

-Elise (my God is a vow)

-Eve (life)

-Josephine (He will enlarge)

-Ruth (friend)

and there's more I just can't think of them now.

What do you guys think??

Well, sorry if this post was boring. I like to document our stuff that we do for the baby. Maybe eventually I will print all this out and put it in a baby book or something. Maybe. No promises, little baby. Ha.

Anyway, whether it be Micaiah or Shiloh, we are so excited for either and we are excited that God has named these children... because they are, in fact, God's children first and foremost.

:)