Long before my family was Orthodox, we lost our third baby in a first-trimester miscarriage. While we never knew the gender of our baby, we always felt like he was a boy, and we have called him Baby Bill (William) all these years.
Over the last 11 years, I have let questions slip into my mind like, "Maybe there wasn't ever really a baby there," "You don't really know if he was a boy!" and "Where did that one photo you took while you were pregnant go? You know the one. You were holding the little green onesie in front of your belly. It had the Colorado outline and said, Native."
Today, though, as we celebrate him, there is something different in my heart: a gift sent from the Lord.
On Thanksgiving last year, I looked through a book showing what Saints are commemorated each day of the year. On Feb 28th, the day my miscarriage began, I noticed that we celebrate St. Basil the Confessor. Just one month before Thanksgiving, I learned William is English for Basil and Vasilios (names I had not heard of before we started going to the Orthodox church, and now are very common to us).
OK, that's a long story to say; God is so good. There are no mistakes or coincidences in the Lord; he had our baby under his provision the whole time (duh).
Today, we celebrate our Baby Bill's name day, knowing he indeed is with the Lord in Heaven, and we celebrate St Basil the Confessor, his namesake. May they pray for us, and may their Memories be Eternal.
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