And his name shall be...

Isaac Jonathan Reed


Yes, I'm aware that all of you already know our sweet son's name. But I wanted to take a moment to tell you the story behind his name. For our family, Isaac is a pretty common name, not fancy or original like Amana or Anlynn. Maybe you were expecting something more exotic! Isaac wasn't a name we had considered in former pregnancies. Isaac wasn't even a name we particularly loved.



I've been hesitant to tell this story because not all of it is lovely and wonderful. Many of you have not heard it before, and I don't want to shock or upset you. But I want to share the work that God has done in the life of our son and in the heart of this family.


We wanted to be pregnant again and were delighted when we found out we were. I was feeling well, but I was experiencing quite a bit of random spotting. That was the main reason we didn't share our news at Christmas, even though we were enjoying the secret ourselves. Sometime around the new year, we shared our exciting news. I continued to have some occasional spotting, but we'd had some with Anlynn's pregnancy, too, and knew it often happened in early pregnancy. However, a Sunday night in January things looked different. We decided to go to the ER. A wonderful friend came to stay with our sleeping babies, and we headed straight for the nearest ER.


It was a horrible, gruesome experience. We saw a rude and tactless doctor. Without sharing all the ugly details, we went home numb after being told our child was gone. We were given instructions to go to our regular doctor the following day for an ultrasound. Those were awful hours. We couldn't sleep. I kept the light on all night. I didn't want to listen to my normal Christian music. I didn't want to hear about how Good and Mighty God is. I didn't want to listen to songs of hope when my hope was destroyed. So I listened to my Celine Dion CD. I'm sure Lige was concerned that I preferred songs like "My Heart Will Go On", but for some reason, those songs were more comfort to my heart at that time.


Lige was a pillar of strength, compassion and hope that night. He held onto the hope our child was okay. He told me that until an ultrasound proved otherwise, he was believing our child to still be alive. In that dark night, Lige clung to God in his hope, and I clung to God in my grief.


First thing Monday morning we were on our way to Kearney for an ultrasound. I cried most of the way there. Christian radio was on, and a song came on that made me focus in on it. The lyrics went, "All of my plans, all of my dreams, I lay them at your feet. All of my time, all that was mine, I submit to your design. 'Cause you're the one the only one who dared to give it all away for me." I could definitely relate to the part about giving up what was mine. But that last part also resounated in my heart. God gave His son Jesus. Jesus knew about pain and loss and broken hearts. That was the part of God I needed in that dark moment. I knew God was mighty, I knew He had all things in His loving control. But in that moment, I needed Jesus. And I'm so thankful that our God is big enough to meet all our needs, even when our need is to relate to a Savior who knew what it meant to suffer.


We got to the doctor's office. In these situations, our doctor's office is really great. We didn't have to wait, we didn't have to have an appointment. They ushered us back to the tiny dark room. The same tech that has been with us during every one of our babies' pregnancies came in somber. She began the ultrasound. I didn't look at the screen; my eyes were closed. But within seconds they flung open to the unmistakeable sound of a heartbeat. The tech's face was glowing relief as well. She said something like, "there's your little peanut." I was in shock, happy happy shock. Lige gave me a beautiful and loving "I told you so" look. The tech left the room, and I wept hard tears of joy.


In Genesis 22 there is an account of Abraham and his son, Isaac. God desired to test Abraham, and so asked him to take his son and sacrifice him to the LORD. Abraham obeyed God, even as his heart broke. He still trusted God, and he still loved God. In the last second before Isaac's life was taken, "an angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham!' and he said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld you son, your only son, from Me.'" In the days after our painful experience, these were the verses that were scheduled during our family devotion time. I'm not sure if we were tested. And I'm not sure that we would have passed. But it certainly felt like we'd been asked to give up our child, only to have God graciously give him back to us after we thought he was gone. I knew from that moment on if we had a son, his name would be Isaac. And I knew that we would tell his story to the glory of God.


Isaac's middle name is Jonathan. We struggled with finding a middle name because we couldn't agree on anything! We had thrown Jonathan into discussion a couple of times, but set it aside again because friends in Minden named their newest son Jonathan in December. But as the due date came nearer and nearer, the name kept coming up. Jonathan is a very dear and respected friend of ours. He is an incredible man of God, and he is a man we'd love our son to look up to. We love him, and we wanted to honor him by naming our son after him. Having our precious Isaac Jonathan in our arms, we know this is the name he was meant to have. May God continue to receive much glory from Isaac's life.