News Flash! New Year's Eve Baby arrives at our house!
Below are three e-mail messages with the story of how our little boy Theron came into our hearts
Wednesday, December 31, 1997 9:46 PM
Subject: New Year Announcement!
Dear Family and friends;
We will be trying to call some of you all with this news. But in case we don't get through, I'll put it out on the wire.
There is a special air if excitement at our house this New Year's Eve. Sleeping in the bassinet here is our new baby boy.
He came home at about 9PM tonight. He is 10 days old - born December 21 at the Portland Adventist Hospital. He was a
healthy 8 pounds 14 ounces at birth, and has been doing very well since. His hair is not as blonde as some babies we've
known, but it is pretty light colored. We met his birth-mother today. She didn't want to know our names, but she wanted to
meet us and pour out her heart about her reasons for choosing adoption. It was a very intense and moving meeting. No
adoption agency is involved. We have not applied anywhere to adopt. The birth mother is a 19 year old student. She brought
the baby home from the hospital, planning to keep him. After bringing him home, she told us she realized that she could
not give him the home that she wanted for him. She told a friend she wanted a Christian family with a stay-at-home Mom and plenty
of siblings. Her friend is a friend of Ellie Kohlmeyer. Ellie called Ronda yesterday. Things have moved pretty fast. We
didn't sleep much last night - many prayers and soul-searches. We are in a state of excited shock. Ellie brought the
baby out last night for us to see him. We haven't even had time to think about a name yet. We plan to sign adoption
papers on Friday or next week. The children are all bouncing off the walls with excitement and baby name suggestions
are flying. I'll write more details later. Love, Art
Saturday, January 03, 1998 7:01 PM
Subject: Still no name
Dear Family and Friends;
We still have not decided on a name for the new baby. Many of you have called and e-mailed us asking for the name, and
we are sorry to stretch your patience. Here are the excuses I can come up with for not yet having a name:
- We decided "yes" we would take him at 6PM on December 31.
- At 6:30PM Barb and her four children arrived.
- At 9PM the baby arrived. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep that night, nor did we work on baby names.
- New Year's Day we played basketball most of the morning to the school gym, which we had reserved weeks before. After
lunch we took a nap instead of thinking about baby names.
- Later our dear friends the Parishes stopped by with the baby's first gift. We enjoyed seeing their twins for the first time in a
while. Then Mike and Rita Barrett and their boys came, also with a gift. Then Ray & April and Mom & Dad arrived from Astoria.
We had a fun supper together admiring the baby, then Ray and the folks drove back down to Eugene. We put children to bed,
took care of the baby. We didn't think about baby names.
- Friday morning I took Taylor in to the Doctor's office to get his stitches out, and then after lunch I went to see a lawyer regarding
the adoption. We had sundown worship, supper, and then music around the piano. We crashed in bed without talking about baby names.
- We got up early this morning and loaded everyone in the van for early church. Barb and Michelle played a lovely special music
(flute and guitar). Barb and family left for Walla Walla this afternoon, and we had more drop-in visitors admiring the baby.
Baby names were not discussed.
- It is Saturday night. The baby is doing fine, eating, sleeping, looking around when he is awake. Caleb seem like such a
big boy now... We ARE talking about baby names. It's going to be hard. Considering the number of children we have already
named, finding names that we have not already either used or rejected in earlier naming wars presents a challenge <grin>.
Love, Art
Friday, January 09, 1998 9:29 PM
Subject: The boy has a name
Dear Family and Friends;
It is a peaceful Friday night at our house. Peaceful because the noise and bustle of the day is done. Peaceful because all the
children are snuggled in their beds sleeping. But most of all peaceful because the 8th (almost) Annual Naming Wars have ended.
The armistice has been signed. The combatants have laid down their lists, their web sites full of baby names, their books, and the
many suggestions from children, family and friends.
We are also glad to report that the birth mother signed all the final adoption release papers this morning. There are still a number
of steps that we must take before the final court decree making him legally our son, but this was the most difficult milestone, and
the one that had kept us concerned and praying.
Ronda's week has been a blur of new-baby fatigue and the regular whirlwind. She has kicked me out of bed a few times early in the
morning to feed the baby, but she has faithfully taken the wee-hour feedings herself. He is eating pretty regularly every three hours,
and he goes right back to sleep after the night feeds. Hannah and Sierra have carefully made a little bed for him out of a cardboard
box top and doll blankets and various articles from the dress-up box. They tenderly put him in this "bed" and make him the center
of their make-believe world. He does fine with all the jostling. Caleb is doing fine with him so far. Standby for the inevitable reports
to the contrary.
For those of you who skipped past all the above to get to the main point of this letter, shame on you. You missed all my carefully
written and riveting prose. You missed all our earthshaking family news. Well, ok, so you didn't miss much. You sure don't want
to miss this. His name is Theron Jonathon Taylor King. According to one source we looked up, the meanings are as follows:
Theron: a name of Greek origin, means: A hunter (rhymes with Sharon)
Jonathon: a name of Hebrew origin, means: The Lord is gracious; gift of God
Taylor: a name of Latin/French origin, means: To cut; a tailor.
King: a name of Anglo-Saxon origin, means: One of royalty; a ruler.
The two middle names were the ones selected by Mollie (the birth mother), and she requested that we use them. We were
happy to, since we like them both. The first name may take "trying on" a few times, but we think you will get to like it with time.
Regardless of your opinion of the name, we are sure that when you meet little Theron, you will like him very much.
Love, Art & Ronda