We have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We had a very special announcement to make to our family and friends: the long-awaited name for the baby!
Drumroll please ................... our son's name is Zachary John Shelton!Early on in the pregnancy, I was so sure it was a boy that we never discussed girl names at all. The initial list of favorites were Tyler, Dylan, Bryce, and Zachary. Many long-suffering conversations later (poor Blaine!), we had extended then narrowed down to the "top 10" of Zachary, Grant, Andrew, Joshua, Tyler, Logan, Gavin, Isaac, Trevor, and Elliot.
There were two "ah-ha" moments that led us to choose Zachary. When we were first trying out names, Blaine was talking to the belly and asked him if he liked Zachary ... and low and behold, a GIANT kick in response.
More meaningful was the realization of the names meaning. Zachary means "God remembers" ... and although that's pretty neat and all, I found it very perplexing. After all, God is all-knowing, so how does God "remember" something if He isn't capable of "forgetting"? Only a day or two after discussing this perplexion with Blaine, I was sitting in our church's small group chatting about the story of Noah. It came to discussion about how Noah was floating out on the water for 5 months before "God remembered" Noah. That was the moment that someone said, "when I read the old testament, it seems to me that when God remembers someone - that's when He is taking action through them and in their life".
That was when I knew Zachary was it! It's a lovely, strong, somewhat unique name ... but we love that my son's namesake is born of our desire to raise a son whom God's hand is acting through him and in his life. Blaine and I debated the name a little more after that, but I'll never forget the moment that he took me in his arms, looked me right in the eye and said, "Aleasha, his name is Zachary".
As for the middle name, I asked Blaine long before we ever conceived that if we had a son, could his middle name be for my grandpa John Kasiniak. My grandpa was a very special person in my life. As an only child, my mom's parents lived with us from when I was 3 years old until I went to college. My grandpa was my constant playmate, read to me, took me to garage sales, and generally helped me get into just enough trouble to be always having fun. He was a faithful husband, a proud soldier, a providing father, and the best grandpa I could've ever wished for. I miss him very much, and hope he is looking down on us proud to have our first son bear even a little part of him.
Aleasha and grandpa John:
We revealed the name over the Thanksgiving weekend. Blaine's idea was to do a 'hangman' game with the Chew family, and a word-jumble with the Shelton's. I failed a bit as game-show hostess by forgetting that there was an 'H' in Zachary ... but nonetheless, the name was unveiled!The Shelton reveal:
... and then the ensuing mischief:
Thanks for sharing! We are in the discussion phase of boy names and only have a few that we both don't hate. Funny that Jake likes about half your names on your top 10 list and has suggested several of them over and over. But Zachery isn't one of them...that's all yours! :)
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