Wednesday, December 22, 2010

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

Christmas came early for the Ishum household. We had our 19-week checkup this morning. Mom is doing great. Better than could be expected really. In fact, if you can believe it, her cervix is longer than it was two weeks ago. Now of course part of that has to do with where the babies are resting at the moment, but this is still a very good sign. 19 weeks and still not on bed rest. The doctors think that she might be able to go the full month of January without being placed on “official bedrest”. This would put her at 24 weeks when the babies are viable. Please let’s keep up the prayers that Becca makes it to at least 30 weeks. God has blessed us with such great health so far so let’s keep those prayers up. Speaking of prayers….

Two weeks ago those who were on Baby A’s team were blessed by finding out that Baby A is a boy and has received the name Caleb Sean. The rest of you now get to share in the blessings.

Baby B is a girl. We have chosen to name her Abigail Rose

Baby C is a boy. He shall be called Elijah James

Baby D is a very bashful girl. She shall be named Elizabeth Grace

Yes, the babies went boy, girl, boy, girl. It is a huge blessings to have a pair of each gender. When we found out we were having quads. We wanted to have a pair of each. This is a huge honor, privilege, and wonderful Christmas present. Quite possibly the best day of my life.

Now for the name origins:

Caleb means doglike. I’m sure some people might look down on this. But it means doglike as in tenacious and loyal. You see Caleb in the Bible was one of the Israelite spies who was sent into the promised land. Caleb along with Joshua trusted in God and wanted to go conquer the promised land. Because of this God blessed Caleb by allowing him to live while the Israelites wandered through the desert. Caleb then at an old age set forth and conquered much of the promised land. Caleb has always been an inspiration to us to holdfast to the promises of God. His middle name, Sean, is a tribute to his father. We strongly considered the name Jonathan for one of our kids because we like that Jonathan was a friend to King David and we wanted to invest the value of friendship in our children but opted out of that since Sean is the Irish form of John.


Abigail means Father’s Joy. The Abigail in the Bible was David’s third wife and was described as beautiful in form and quite intelligent. She was married to a rather unintelligent man whose name escapes me at the moment, but she showed discretion when her husband tried to insult King David. God found favor in her because of this and allowed her husband to die and she then became married to the King. We have always found this name beautiful but also wanted Abigail to know that we rejoice for her and believe that she will be intelligent, probably even smarter than her father. Her middle name of Rose is a tribute to her mother which is Becca’s middle name which is a tribute to her mother Rosemary.


Elijah means the Lord is my God. We wanted to give the kids names that honored God. Elijah is known as one of the greatest prophet in the Old Testament. (Ironically, his apprentice Elisha has twice as many miracles recorded) His middle name, James, comes from one of our favorite books of the Bible. I really wanted a boy named James but when we started going over all the different combinations of names we decided we really liked Elijah so James became a middle name.


Elizabeth means God’s promise. The other three babies have names from people in the Old Testament but Elizabeth has the honor of being from the New Testament. In fact, (and we really like this), Elizabeth is tied into the Christmas story. You see Mary, (the mother of Jesus), had an older cousin named Elizabeth who was feared to be barren, but God promised her that she would have a baby. That baby ended up being John the Baptist. Elizabeth combined with Grace equals God’s promise of Grace. A perfect Christmas present for all regardless of the time of year. Also, the fact that Elizabeth was barren relates to Becca in her desire to conceive. Sure, Elizabeth was older than Becca but still it is a character that we can relate to.


We pray that everyone can find Jesus in this holiday season. With all of the family get togethers and running around and Christmas shopping, it is easy to miss God’s promises and blessings. I know I have had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. Please count your blessings where you can find them. Again, we appreciate all of the prayers. We hope you enjoy the stories behind the babies’ names.

Have a Merry Christmas!
--posted by Sean

19 comments:

  1. Grow babies grow!!! Praying for Team Ishum!!
    Love the names!

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  2. Well I am just super flattered that you decided to name two of the babies after Caleb and I. ;-) Okay, so that's probably not true, but at least I'm happy to hear that our friendships have created (okay, okay - at least SUSTAINED!) a POSITIVE reaction to the names "Elizabeth" and "Caleb". :-D SO happy for you guys, and can hardly wait to meet these little darlings!

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  3. Sean- Very well written and almost brought tears to my eyes! I'm so glad you shared with us how you decided on your names your children are very blessed to have the two of you as their parents!. I'm very excited to hear Rebecca and the babies are in good health and even more excited to be praying especially for Elizabeth by name. I love you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas!!!

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  4. I was so hoping Baby B was a bouncing baby Girl.. Abigail Rose ... I LOVE IT... and all the names are PERFECT...We will be sure to tell them how much thought Mom and Dad put into naming each of them... Glad that Caleb was first... he was just out doing some spying ahead of the crowd coming behind him..Rebecca I am so pleased that things are going well for you...and in turn for you, Sean... You both continue to be in our prayers as well as the bitty bits...and of course Abigail will be beautiful and intelligent!!!

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  5. thank you for sharing with us! what a blessing getting to know what "our" baby is! and having a name to be praying for specifically.
    wonderful report about each of you!
    merry, merry Christmas to the 6 of you!
    debbie s

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  6. Oh how exciting! When I read that Baby B was a girl, I exclamed out loud and Lukas and Claire stopped what they were doing and said, "What"? Then I had to explain the good news! How perfect and how wonderful....two boys and two girls. I am so excited for you and will continue to keep your little family in my prayers. I love the names too. May God continue to bless all of you.

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  7. I love the names!!! Each name you chose is beautiful and is full of wonderful meaning. When we chose Caleb I found a definition calling him bold... that combined with your description of doglike is very powerful. I hope the two of you have a fantastic Christmas!

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  8. WOW, Sean and Rebecca!!! WOW!!! "For with God, nothing is impossible!!!" My heart is just bursting and overflowing with happiness and joy for you and those precious little blessings! "Only God" could be orchestrating things so perfectly.
    He *IS* so good! Continued prayers for your precious
    family :-)

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  9. Go on, ask me how excited I am! Ask Me!
    4 precious blessings that now have names!!!!! :) :) :) :)

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  10. So glad that all is going well. How fun to have 2 sets of each and what beautiful and thoughtful names you have given to each of them. We are grateful that Becca has some extra time out of bed and we will continue to pray that she and the babies will stay in place until just the right time. Merry "early" Christmas and looking forward to those 4 wonderful blessings in the New Year.

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  11. Fantastic! God's blessings. We keep you all in our prayers. The name of Abigail's husband was Nabal- I Samual 25:1-42.

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  12. God is SO good. What a wonderful well written blog. Congratulations. What a blessed Christmas this will be. :-}

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  13. Wow! What precious blessings! Thank you so much for sharing their genders and names with us. We rejoice with you both.

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  14. So excited for you, what a beautiful piece, make sure you save this for them when they get older and ask about their names. My daughter Abby was excited to hear there will be another Abigail in the world!

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  15. Continuing to pray for and think of you!

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  16. So glad to hear that mom and babies are doing well. Forget 30 weeks. I am praying for full term.

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  17. Ishum family, I am Paula and I saw the article about you in the paper. I love your names, and the fact you determined their meanings before deciding on them.

    My son was named before birth also, Nathanael David, Blessed gift from God. It also honored his uncle and granddad.

    I would be honored to be on team Elizabeth, my middle name is Beth, and I would love to hold her name up to God with you. I will of course remember the whole family as well.

    We do not know each other, but we are family in Christ. I hope you do not mind my speaking up.

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  18. Hi Paula,

    Thanks for asking to be on Elizabeth's prayer team. That would be fantastic! We really appreciate that you left us a message and want to support our family with prayer. Thank you!!

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  19. I have been praying for all of you since I first found out about you! I realized today that YOU benefit to know I am praying. My friends and family are praying too, so add to your list: Alaska, California, Texas, Indiana, Florida, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nevada, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas... and probably more. I am especially praying for your back -- and for your babies to stay in the oven and continue baking :>). I am the new Gramma of Emilia, born Monday 1:51 AM, so my heart is wide open and deeply focused on babies and the "lady in waiting" right now. YOURS will get lots of prayer time from me. Thank you so much for having this blog. It means a lot, and helps my prayers be more specific.

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