The story of his name

The name Nathanael became significant to us just before our little baby reached the six weeks gestation mark.

Here is part of our story:

I had been going in for blood tests every other day so that our specialist could monitor the change in hCG (hCG is a hormone produced by pregnancy, actually the one that triggers a positive pregnancy test. In general, the levels will double every 48-72 hours in early pregnancy.) The first week or so, everything was looking great, and then the levels stopped rising as significantly as they would have liked. The nurses were quick to say that it could mean nothing; a normal pregnancy may have low hCG levels and still result in a perfectly healthy baby. We tried not to make too much of it. With our prior three losses, we were preparing ourselves for the possibility of having to accept another one. We simply tried to trust God with the outcome and find peace and reassurance in His goodness and sovereignty in it all. We had a weekend trip to visit friends and family in Erie and Detroit planned, so we scheduled an ultrasound for the day we returned - just short of 6 weeks - and hit the road. Our first day traveling, the nausea began, and we celebrated this good sign with friends and family. It gave us hope that the pregnancy was progressing as normal.

And we started dreaming about names again.

We saw a movie in Detroit with a main character by the name of Nathanael. Greg leaned over to me and said he really liked that name. I agreed. Later that night, I looked up the meaning online and was stunned to find out it comes from the Hebrew and means "God has given" or "gift of God". I was sold, and Greg wasn't too far behind me. We had no idea if the little baby growing inside me was male or female or even if it would survive much longer, but from that point on, I was quite convinced we were having a little boy who would be known as Nathanael -- God has given.

A sidenote: You may be curious about the spelling of Nathanael. This is the way you'll see it in the Gospel of John (the transliteration of the Greek), and we also like that it's not quite as common (though more so than other spellings) as the English version, Nathaniel. Oh, and it only took us three months to make THAT decision! haha

His middle name, Alim, is a name used in Turkey (originally Arabic) and means "man of learning; scholar, wise". Most of you know that Greg and I met, dated, and became engaged in Turkey. The place (really the relationships we have from there) holds great significance to us, and we wanted our son to know of this significance. We scoured Turkish names, looking for the right name -- our criteria: (1) easy enough for non Turks to pronounce, (2) sounds good with Nathanael King, and (3) a meaning worth giving our son. I carried around a list of ten names that were possibilities, and we eventually both ended up liking Alim the best. It is pronounced like the commonly known name "Ali" as in Muhammad Ali, but with an "m" at the end, Ah-leem'.

Nathanael Alim King, we eagerly await your arrival!