...Continued from Baby Facts
When Lindsay and I finally got a minute alone, the immediate agenda was obvious. We conferred about the baby’s name as he anxiously looked on. And after brief discussion, we settled on the long-time leader:
Aidan James
We’d liked "Aidan" for years, ever since I read the story of the Celtic Saint Aidan and we found out that Aidan was the first name of A.W. Tozer, an exceptional Christian author. Also, Aidan means “fire,” which is basically awesome—or, I should say—which has a wealth of allusive and metaphorical possibility. I’ve heard other people diss the name for this very reason: “Well you knooow, Aidan means ‘fire…’” Yeah, exactly. Isn’t that the point?
It seemed like a great meaning to us.
However, The Aidan Plan hit a roadblock when we learned that “Aidan” was one of the top ten baby names in 2005. How’d they find our name? Also, there’s been this proliferation of names with long-A sounds: Caiden, Hadyn, Jaiden. None of this really excites us. These are all names that people might hear and say, “Oh, you were from that era.”
In the end, we decided it didn’t matter. If there are a lot of little Aidans out there, our Aidan will just have to be more famous than the others.
Oh yeah, and James is my middle name. It just sounded right with “Aidan.” The biblical meaning is “deceiver,” which I prefer to interpret as “persuasive talker.” Anyway, the news is out: There’s now an A.J., jr. in the house.
And a new tag on the blog: Aidan
A quick aside: I know a lot of you are in shock right now, having thought you'd figured out the baby's middle name for sure. To make you feel better, I'll acknowledge that if KU had won tonight instead of careening weirdly around the court, we might have retrofitted little AJ's middle handle to "Jay." Who knows, even "Jayhawk," had KU made an Elite Eight run. But no. The enormity of this loss has yet to sink in for Bill Self. Someday he'll meet Aidan and realize what a tragedy BradleyGate actually was.
OK, enough on that. Back to the hospital scene.
::
Once Aidan’s blood sugar came roaring back, he spent most of the day meeting friends and family, giving high fives and smiling his little grin. What a charmer. It was after 10:00 when I finally left to get some sleep.
I drove through Wendy’s, then headed home, euphorically eating the cardboard fries and thinking about how life had just ridiculously changed. On the freeway I was very careful, avoiding semi-trucks and giving the guard rails a wide berth. It would be a bad time for a life-ending accident.
Once I got home, I broke out a celebratory beverage and lofted it, offering an amazed toast to God—“Lindsay is OK and we have a cute baby—because you answer prayer.”
The silence that followed was perfectly uplifting.
The end...for now.
7 comments:
Great picture (Lindsay looks radiant).
Great name (and you have the right attitude: you chose the name because of personal associations, not because it's on some list of strangers' names).
Continued blessings to the three of you.
john and elisa have already said it, but wow, what a great photo - they both look so beautiful. Congratulations on becoming a dad.
You're wrong about "the end." It's a whole new world now, big guy. If you thought you hit your knees in prayer a lot now, just wait till you fully realize responsibility of being a father.
I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Cheers.
To add to what R. Sherman said regarding fatherhood...
Amen.
It's great to read about the events from the inside of your mind, Arie, as well as having experienced them from my unique viewpoint. Time to add to your "about me" on your blog. I noticed a little poetic license, but you earned it that day. Catch you later, Mom
Dear Lindsay & Ariel~~
Congratulations and WELCOME Baby Aidan!
Enjoy these days. . .the sweet innocence of infanthood go by WAY too fast. . .
Love,
Joy in the Journey
Yes, Lindsay came out looking good. She's been pretty exhausted, but she managed to get a long nap this afternoon while I entertained the little guy (i.e. held him while he slept, changed his diapers...)
"It's great to read about the events from the inside of your mind, Arie, as well as having experienced them from my unique viewpoint. Time to add to your "about me" on your blog. I noticed a little poetic license, but you earned it that day. Catch you later, Mom"
It's neat to hear from my Mom on the blog. :) She was on hand for all the excitement and actually made it to the hospital before I did. As to the "poetic license..." I'm not sure what she's talking about. I related everything precisely as it happened, right down to the conversation I had with Aidan about his formula.
Yes, it may be time to update the 'about me' tagline...
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