Elisha Joel

Early August 21, 2010 we had a little (8lbs 11oz) baby boy and named him Elisha Joel. Elisha is pronounced E...L(eye) sha. It's a Hebrew (Biblical) name from the Old Testament and means God is Salvation. I've grown up being familiar with the Old Testament stories of the prophet Elisha, but apparently most people are finding it EXTREMELY unusual and are calling him Aleesha when they see it in writing. We totally didn't see that one coming! Sorry Buddy! I guess he'll have to pave the way on this one!

His middle name Joel was chosen for three reasons. (1) We loved the sound of Joel after Elisha. (2) The meaning is Jehovah is God and loved that combo with God is salvation (Elisha). (3) We also have some pretty special people in our life that have this name and as a tribute have named our little guy in honour of all three of them.
My 'little' brother Joel. A pretty special guy with a big heart for God. He's a gifted leader, a talented athlete, sensitive heart and a great sense of humour. We're excited for Elisha to play soccer with Uncle Joel soon :) We also desire our Elisha to be like his Uncle Joel who is a great role model.
Jordan Joel. I've grown up with Jordie my whole life and Blake and I have become best couple friends with him and his wife Jenny. We loved these guys so much we dragged them over to Korea with us for a year and bonded so much deeper during that time. They are such an encouragement to us in so many ways. God has allowed us to step into the role of parenthood right alongside these guys and are bonded even further as we seek wisdom in how to bring up Naomi and Elisha as God would have us. These guys are our BFF's ;)
Timothy Joel. The 'big brother' I never had who lived in the basement of our house for 8(?) years while I grew up. Tim is an extremely diligent individual who seriously digs deep into the Word of God. I had so many spiritual/theological questions for Tim while growing up and he would faithfully help me struggle through them writing pages of notes in explanations- always directing me to Scripture verses. We would love our little guy to have this same diligent heart for God.

We are so thankful for the many more Godly and wonderful role models we are surrounded by and the wonderful influences Elisha will have in his life. Choosing the name Joel meant we hit 3 all at once! :)