What's in a Name, Part II

In some of our early marriage talks about baby names, both Dave & I discovered that we loved the name Isaac. Of course, when we picked the name Isaac for our firstborn son, we had no idea of the journey that was ahead of us as we sought to grow our family. Once we decided to adopt, were matched with our birthmom, and found out that Baby Rinn was a boy, the name Isaac took on an even greater meaning to us.

In the Old Testament, Abraham and Sarah named their long-awaited son "Isaac" because it means "he laughs" or "he will laugh." Sarah laughed at God when she heard that God had promised she and Abraham a son in their old age. After her Isaac's birth, she said

"God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." (Genesis 21:6)

Throughout our struggle with infertility, I was hurting so badly, and I wasn't seeing God's goodness through our pain. We yearned for the sound of a child's laughter in our family...so, the main reason that we love the name Isaac is that we knew this sweet boy would bring that long-awaited laughter!

Obviously, we had no idea of the story that our little Isaac was going to have. As we left the hospital without our Isaac on Sunday, October 18, we sat in the parking lot & called our parents, who were all weeping right along with us. During those terrible hours of waiting to find out what was going to happen that afternoon, God had reminded Dave of the story of Abraham & Isaac. As Abraham was walking up the mountain to sacrifice, Isaac asked, "Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham replied, "God Himself will provide." Another of our dear friends put it this way: That even while Abraham and Isaac were walking up one side of the mountain, God's provision (the ram) was walking up the other side. Though Abraham could not see the ram, he had faith that God would provide for him. Even in the pain of coming home without Isaac, we believed that God Himself would provide for us...and little did we know how incredible His provision would be!

Since I love names so much, I am always asking my grandparents about the history of their extended family members' names. While talking with my Grandma Joan awhile ago, she shared that her grandfather was named Isaac...immediately my ears perked up and I started taking notes. Isaac Theodore Edman was my Grandma Joan's paternal grandfather, which makes him my great-great-grandfather. Isaac Edman immigrated to America from Sweden. While we had already chosen the name Isaac for our firstborn son, we think it's extra special that his name has a link to our family's heritage.

We chose "David" as Isaac's middle name based on Rinn family tradition. The firstborn son in each Rinn family has his father's name as his middle name.

Isaac's great-great-grandpa--Roy Nelson Rinn
Isaac's great-grandpa--Benjamin Roy Rinn
Isaac's grandpa--Timothy Benjamin Rinn,
Isaac's dad--David Timothy Rinn

As far as we could tell in our research on the Rinn family geneology, Great-great-grandpa Roy seems to be the first Rinn who gave his firstborn son his first name as a middle name. But still, that's a tradition that's lasted 4 generations so far, and so it's noe one that we wanted to break!

So...needless to say, we had our own ideas on why we picked the name Isaac, but God had a far greater plan for this sweet baby boy's name! We are still in awe that God brought our Isaac home to us!