What's In A Name?

With each of our kids we have made it a point for either a first or middle name to have some level of connection to the people who have walked in and through our life and left a profound impact.  The other name tie into their story in some way.


Katylynn: Named after 5 different Kate-style named friends and students who are very dear to us.
Ivy: The name her birth mom gave her.

Moses: Obvious correlations to OT Moses story.
Andrew: 4 different Drews/Andrews who are dear to us.

Keiralee: Aboriginal for miracle baby
Joy: Middle name of Kristy Mikel, one of Janelle's best friends and a major support to our journey.

So, what is the story behind our newest addition?
The birth mother made it clear to us that she would like us to name the baby. To be completely honest, we hadn't had a lot of conversation to that point.  We found out we had a boy early morning.  As we talked it through, the name just rang true... Malachi Davis.

Malachi is Hebrew for messenger of God... We are taking a little translation freedom (forgive me Dr Carpenter) over the fact we received a crazy message that showed up on our phones that on our phone giving us about 8 hours notice of his birth. We also loved the thought of having 2 boys with an biblical "M" name.
Davis:  When I started at NMC in an internship my Sophomore year, I walked timidly into a room full of 8th Grade guys.  One of those guys was quick to introduce himself.  "I'm Dave."  The kid was sharp... a clear leader.  David Cramer was the first middle school guy and eventually high school guy I had the privilege of investing in.  Somewhere along the way I started calling him Davis Cravis.  I ended up really liking the name Davis as a nod to Mr Cramer.  Also, David is the name of Janelle's father.



I pray this little messenger of God will grow to be the man of depth and character that is present in his grandfather and an student I now call friend.