SAMUEL AARON RUSSO!! I’m excited to announce that our new baby boy’s name is Samuel Aaron Russo. The name Samuel, means “God has heard.” For this reason, the name holds special significance for Abbi and I. Some of you know why this pregnancy is more weighty for us in some ways than the other two. When our youngest, Jonathan was born, Abbi had some complications. We found out that Abbi had what’s called a uterine window. This means her uterus was extremely thin in a certain spot. Probably because both of our kids were almost 10 pound babies! This in and of itself was concerning, but Abbi then had some bleeding issues. She actually had to have a blood transfusion and they eventually found a rather large clot right outside her uterus. Things got a little scary.

Abbi and I walked out of that experience not certain if we should have any more children. We got some different opinions from other Doctors and were told that another pregnancy would definitely be higher risk. We weren’t told to absolutely not have another child, but just that it would be more risky. We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t want to react out of fear and just decide to cut bate, but we also didn’t want to throw caution to the wind and be reckless. We decided that we needed to hear from God.

Have you ever been in a situation like that? There are plenty of times when I am fine going forward simply based on logic and trusting that it lines up with what I believe is right. There are times though, when the stakes are too high and I resolve that God is going to have to speak specifically on the matter. This was one of those times. Some people made it seem like our only risk was moving forward and risking Abbi and the baby’s health. We didn’t see it that way. To us, it was also a risk that we would be overly cautious and miss the chance to usher another precious life into the world. We needed God to weigh in because he is the only one with perfect perspective. That’s important for all of us to remember. There is someone that we have access to 24/7 who doesn’t need to read a book or ask a question. He is willing to speak to us, but the question is, are we willing to listen?

Well, earlier this year we had the opportunity to go to Israel. It was an incredible trip! Abbi started to have some suspicions that she might be pregnant on the trip, but she didn’t want to let me know until she was certain. On the plane ride back, I was listening to an audio book called Fathered by God by John Eldredge. As I was listening, I felt something in my heart and stopped the book. Even though I had been riding the fence for over 3 years at this point, something switched within me and I told Abbi that I thought we should move forward and have another kid. Mind you, I had no idea that Abbi might be pregnant or anything. Once we got back to our house in Columbia, I was shaving my head and Abbi came into the bathroom and set a pregnancy test on the counter. She was pregnant! That prompting I had gotten the day or 2 before helped me to trust that God had our back on this one.

As Abbi and I were trying to come up with names, we were stumped for a while. She tends to like the more eccentric ones and I guess I’m a little boring. I threw out the name Samuel, but Abbi wasn’t sold right away. What really clinched it for her was when she heard the meaning of the name….”God has heard.” That did it. For Abbi, it means that God has heard her desire for another child. It’s a prayer she had and anytime we talked about being done after 2, she couldn’t help but feel that she genuinely wanted another one. For me, “God has heard” means that God has heard my fear that something could go wrong with another pregnancy. I believe God has heard my prayer and is going to take care of us through this process. Some of you may be wondering about the middle name. Isaac and Jonathan both have middle names that start with A, so that was definitely a part of the consideration. On top of that, we like the way Aaron sounds with Samuel. We also love Aaron’s significance in the Old Testament narrative and the fact that his name means, “light bringer.”

So that’s it…Samuel Aaron Russo. I can’t fully describe it, but it has been a long and emotional road that has gotten us to this point. We are excited that we are going to have 3 boys…pray for Abbi!! (-; Please also join us in prayer for a smooth pregnancy, a great delivery and a healthy baby boy. Thanks for your prayers and support!