Allow us to introduce you to....

Landon Soich-David!

After three days (and a 9 month pregnancy) we finally decided on a name!  We didn't think it would be this hard, but we guess everyone has different struggles.  Ours was obviously this.  We had a long list of names we weren't opposed to, but not necessarily a list of names we really wanted.  Even his actual birth day Shani had no desire to name him because she didn't have anything in mind.  John was definitely more antsy and he wanted a name picked by day two. There we were on day three.  We decided to make a more determined effort to figure out which name we felt fit our son.  We narrowed our list down to three names.  We then decided to rank them individually, write them down, and compare our rankings to see if we agreed.  We had the same #2, but our #1's and 3's were switched (soon after we decided to take our #2 name off the list). 

John tried a new tactic. He took two little stuffed animals and assigned a name to each (an elephant for Shan's #1 and a turtle for John's #1). He then tried to see if our son would "choose" one.  He reached for the elephant! Well, er...he flailed his arm his hand hit the elephant. Results were inconclusive. So, John tried a new test. He rubbed the baby with the stuffed animals and put them across the room and told Mochi to get one. She chose the turtle.  With her choice John realized he actually liked the "elephant" name better. We started leaning toward the elephant. 

At lunch Shani's dad mentioned that we should pray about the name we should use.  Shani was upset that although she had thanked God for all the blessings we had gone through, she had not prayed about his name.  So as she sat on the couch nursing our son, she prayed that God give her guidance in figuring out a name.  As Shani prayed, John thought to himself that he really wanted a "sign" that the "elephant" name was a good decision.  Not five minutes later we looked out the window and it was beginning to rain although it was still sunny. John commented, "I wonder if there is a rainbow." He opened the door and didn't take two steps before he saw a perfect rainbow in the sky above the house across the street--a not-so-subtle sign. Shani also took this rainbow as guidance from God.  Landon it was.

His middle name was much easier and determined months ago.  John's family's tradition is to have the first born son take the paternal grandfather's name as a middle name.  Shani's family's tradition is to have a Japanese name for a middle name.  We really wanted to incorporate these traditions into our family, but had to figure out exactly how to accomplish it.  Shani didn't want two middle names because it was important that both traditions were held in equal importance and not one name to be "used" more than the other.  Soichiro is Shani's "Poppa's" name who passed away a few years ago.  When it came to finding a Japanese middle name for our son, we knew that we wanted to honor him.  David is John's dad's name and another man of great importance in our lives.  It is an honor to keep both traditions going. 

 We shared our decision with Shani's parents and John's mom via birthday cake. Donna picked up John's special order on her way over. John was promised by the cake lady that the cake would be in a covered box and she wouldn't ruin the surprise. It turns out that "covered" means clear plastic and "wouldn't ruin the surprise" loosely translates to asking Donna 'Is it a birthday cake for Landon?' as she shows her the cake and they try to read the name together. Go figure :)

Other than the difficulties associated with naming Landon, things are going really well. We've had wonderful support, love, gifts, and food from friends and family. We thankfully continue to be truly blessed with good health.

Happy Birthday Landon Soich-David!

Mac Family

Eyes actually open!