Actual Conversation

Havana: I know what we could invent.

Me: what? 

H: a coat 

Me: I think the coat has already been invented. 

H: oh, man! 

Beautiful Fall

Yesterday, i Really enjoyed God's masterpiece in the backyard. The kids did too! Jonah just told everyone that, "something special is at the end of the rainbow- like a Lego firetruck!"  Later when a cloud covered the rainbow Jonah said it was disappearing and Selah covered her eyes and yelled, "oh no! I can't watch!" 

Introducing (again)

"See, I have written your name on the palms of my hand." Isaiah 49:16

Shortly after we found out we were having a boy, I attached to the name Hezekiah. Jason was not so sure that was his name - although he couldn't say there was a name he liked more. For months, I continued to pray for him by that name and would speak to him calling him, "Heze." I kept telling Jason that once he saw the baby, he would feel the same way.

When our son was born, we still didn't have a good name for him. I thought Hezekiah still, but Jason still wasn't sure and we felt that Dakota was a safer choice. However, after arriving home from the hospital, it didn't take me long before I wondered if we had made the right choice in naming our son Dakota. While  I loved the name and love that he had my initials, I just couldn't help but feel that the Hezekiah I had prayed for and spoken to all those months in the womb was missing. It was very bizarre experience, but it is safe to say that I was lacking peace over it.

After a couple of weeks, I confessed to Jason that I was really struggling with it and we began to talk about the possibility of changing his name. Jason liked the name Dakota, but noticed how upset it made me and said that if changing his name would "bring mama back" that he was happy to change it. To me, that was a lot of pressure and so for two weeks, I prayed to the Lord, begging Him to reveal our baby's name to us. I said, "Lord, You have his name written on the palm of your Hand... please share it with us." Over time, we continued to believe that it was Hezekiah was the better choice.

I remember one day in the shower thinking about which name I would regret not choosing five years up the road. As I came out of the shower, I told Jason I was leaning towards Dakota... he said, "really? Cause I'm leaning more towards hezekiah." At that, I was more than happy to stick with the name Hezekiah which proved to me that it was the name I had truly wanted. We continued to seek His face until we had complete peace... Jason finally said, "I feel that Hezekiah would be OUR name for the baby rather than just a "name that ends in 'ah'" -- and he is... calling him by his name now brings me joy rather than regret.

So, long overdue, but I am so thrilled to introduce to you our fifth child:

Hezekiah Jason Dugger

It took us a couple of days to nail down the middle name. We had originally (before the baby was born) thought about Hezekiah James, but after further thought we thought giving him his daddy's name would be a great choice. I will confess, it doesn't "ring" as well as Hezekiah James, but I love that he was named after a great king and a great daddy.

Literal

Havana is a very literal girl... She once got scared when some boys in her Sunday school class said they were going to cut off her head. And another time she got scared in chapel because she thought they were going to cut off ER ears when they were taking about Peter cutting off The ear in the bible. Anyway, the other day I picked her up from Sunday school and I said, "what did you all talk about?" Her response was, "well, we didn't really talk about anything because the teachers did all the talking." 

New Name!

After much, much prayer... we have finally (almost) resolved our name dilemma.

We love the name Dakota Lincoln... it is a cute name and I loved that he had my initials, but I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't "his" name. My lack of peace wore off on Jason and he began to agree that perhaps Hezekiah would be a more personal name. We prayed for many nights - I kept telling the Lord, "You have his name written on the palm of your hand.... could you please reveal it to us?"

We would sit in bed, hold our baby, and read 2 Kings 18-20 out loud over him.

We finally came to a peace that we wanted to change his name to Hezekiah. We are still sorting out the middle name, but hopefully will have that nailed down by later tonight... (he's only 4.5 weeks old, its about time he had a name! Ha).

I'm so excited to be going with Hezekiah...

I was a little bummed because we had newborn photos taken of him and had letters that spelled Dakota, but after downloading a free trial of photoshop and watching many you tube videos to figure out how to work it... I have successfully changed the photo to make it look like we took the photo with the letter blocks of "Hezekiah"

Butler

The kids have been know role playing and the other day Havana assigned Jonah the role of "butler"-- later in the game Jonah said, "I am the buttoner!" 

So cute! 

September 13th

September 13th was a big day at our house! Havana lost her first tooth!

About her second day of school, Havana began to say she had a loose tooth... skeptical of her claim, Jason checked and he confirmed! I couldn't believe two big life changes (school and first tooth) were taking place!

Her tooth became quite loose very quickly and she was struggling to eat and brush her teeth, so one day, Jason pulled it out. She cried for a little bit, but she was (overall) very brave. We gave her a two dollars that night and she had to save one and then she could spend the other. She picked out a princess and puppy bowl with a straw from the dollar store at target. She put it on the conveyor held and handed her dollar to the sales clerk all on her own.

We wanted to give her three dollars so she could tithe, save, and spend.... but we didn't have that much cash on us! Ha. Next tooth. :)