Thad

I've said it before.  Ben and I become enemies when it comes down to choosing boy names.  Even though we were thrilled with the news that we'd be evening up our family by having another boy, part of me was thinking, "It'll be awesome -- once we figure out a daggone name!"

 

So.  We went back and forth on names.  We even made our own lists and handed them to the other just to have all of the names crossed out when it was handed back. 

 

But then one day, Ben casually asked, "What about Thaddeus?"

 

I sort of laughed and asked, "Are you saying that because of me?"  I thought he was joking.  He wasn't.

 

He looked at me, very confused.  "No.  Why?"

 

"You know.  My ancestor.  Thaddeus Hill.  The first person baptized into the church in the state of Florida with the really cool escape story?  Super awesome pioneer?  The reason why I had a scholarship to any of the BYU's of my choice?"

 

"Nope."

 

When I realized he was serious about the name, we decided it was definitely a contender.   Since we virtually had no list of names, it was at the top.  But we didn't write anything in stone.

 

For weeks we considered it.  But even though I'm the one with a Thaddeus in my family history, I was the one who was a little more hesitant.  Thaddeus isn't exactly a name that you hear of that often in this decade... er.... century.  I didn't know if I could do that to my own baby.

 

On the morning of Father's Day, I told Ben we needed to take Thaddeus off the list.  It was just a little too "out there" for me.  I could tell Ben was a little bummed, but he was an awesome sport about it and supported my decision.  But that night I learned about my uncle Paul's death (another descendant of Thaddeus Hill).  It was definitely a tearful evening, but also extremely spiritual.  As I said my prayers that night, I prayed extra fervently for a spiritual experience as a token of the spiritual experiences that I had had that evening.

 

Within moments of ending my prayer I fell asleep and went into an inspired dream.  I don't have inspired dreams often, but when I do, I take them seriously.  In the dream I saw my son and my uncle Paul.  I won't go into detail since this is a very private and sacred thing to me, but when I woke up not long after, I knew I had been taught certain things -- one of which was that our son's name is supposed to be Thaddeus Paul.  The next morning when Ben woke up (because he was looooong asleep by the time all this was done) I told him what happened and he instantly agreed that that is his name.

 

I haven't felt totally comfortable telling people about his name.  But this experience has made me feel a little more connected with Elizabeth and Zacharias when the people were a little weirded out by them naming their son John.

 

I'm slowly getting there with his name, though, but I am excited that he will be named after two incredibly amazing men.  If he is anything like them, I would be more thrilled than I could describe.  Not all of you know who my uncle Paul was, but he gave up going into the medical field to become a professional seminary teacher instead.  I always thought of that choice as choosing to heal people's spirits instead of their bodies.  He was an amazing person. 

 

Less than 2 months to go and then we will get to meet our little boy in person.  Just one heads up:  he's going to be called Thad.