Oceana and Joshua

Yeah, I know it's pretty white. And I will not respond to any comments made on my stretch marks. But I had a chance to cuddle with both my babies. It's amazing how special those times are - when I have one baby on my arm and one baby in my tummy.
Oceana loves to kiss Joshua and often pulls up my shirt to tell me about "Beh-bee". She does not care if it's while we're in public, in church, in the store.... she wants to see baby NOW!

I thought you all might like to know why Joshua Matthew is named as he is.
We were at our DTS in Matamata when we went for our first ultrasound that revealed Joshua's encephalocele. The same day, we had a "day alone with God". Basically, Oceana was in preschool all morning and we had the chance to seek God all morning for ourselves and ask Him what He had to say to us.

We split up, and tried to stay out of each other's hair by going for walks, going to other buildings, etc. During that time the Lord gave Matt the words Joshua and Matthew. We had not intended to find out the sex this time, but when we discovered there was a problem I told Matt I needed to know if it was he or she - and I neeed to give the baby a name. Matt hadn't told me about the Word from the Lord.

After we got into the car to drive back to the base, I turned to him and asked simply, "What's his name?" And Matt didn't give me an answer. We had not had good luck coming up with names. I really disliked Matt's ideas and he thought mine were crazy. When we got home, he handed me his notebook from his time with the Lord that morning and I saw Joshua with a box below that said "strong and courageous" and Matthew with a box below it that said "God's gift". I knew right then that Matt had received the word before we went for our appointment, and knew that was God's way of showing us his name. He was Joshua Matthew from that moment on.

The story of Joshua is an interesting one. He was the servant of Moses and then he became the leader of all Israel. Imagine being a servant and then being promoted to the presidency. It's a huge jump! And Joshua didn't feel he was adequite for the job. 5 or 6 times in Deuteronomy, Numbers, and Joshua the Lord reminds Joshua, "Be strong and courageous!". It wasn't until part way through the book of Joshua that Joshua turns to the people and reminds them to be strong and courageous. It took him a long time to become strong and courageous. Joshua's name actually wasn't Joshua originally. His name was Hoshea. Hoshea means "Saviour" or "Deliverer". Moses felt he needed a new name, and chose Joshua. He added "Jo" to make it "Jehovah saves" or "Jehovah delivers". Joshua wasn't his own deliverer, his deliverer was the Lord.

Matthew means God's gift. I wanted to name a baby after Matt, but he didn't want to. So I knew it was the Lord speaking to him because Matthew was in there! Joshua really is our gift from the Lord.

Joshua Matthew - Jehovah Delivers, a Gift from God.