What, are you Catholic or something?

We've gotten a lot of guff for the moniker we saddled our boy with. What, are you Catholic or something? Gideon, isn't that some sort of mythological creature, like with Zeus? Or, my personal favorite, after announcing our pick, one of Noah's co-workers asked him just how many children he had had- as in, did we really need all those names for one kid? Ha ha, funny. Ok, so our boy has a long name. So it doesn't fit on one line of his social security card. Well, we figured he might just need this mighty name. I figure since it's Noah's child and Deb warned me numerous times how naughty he was as a kid, maybe the extra name would come in handy. As in, if I am yelling at him and get to Gideon Timothy, he knows he's not in too much trouble. If I reach Patrick, he'd better be running. If I get to O'Reilly, he'll know that he's toast. Good theory. Hopefully I'll never need any name other than Gideon. Yeah right!

Gideon Timothy Patrick O'Reilly. Kind of has a ring, doesn't it? I thought I'd blog a bit on why exactly we chose it and what it means. Some of it is obvious, some really isn't. Gideon was chosen for Gideon in the bible. If you don't know the story, read Judges. Good, old testament stuff in there. Basically Gideon was a bad dude. He was God's mighty warrior. While we really liked the name, after Gideon was born, we figured he was going to be a fighter. We wanted him to have God in his corner. We also wanted to give God the glory, not man.

Timothy was chosen after our dear uncle who passed away about 6 weeks before Gideon came into the world. Wonderful O'Reilly man. We wanted our son to have strong ties to his family. We wanted him to value hard work and have good character, like Tim did. Tim, and his wife Sandy (Gideon's honorary Gramma) are some of our most favorite family members. I fondly remember dinners with them and long talks afterwards. I could always tell when Noah needed an O'Reilly male fix- he'd invite Tim and Sandy to dinner. I loved watching their minds work. Solving problems, being sarcastic, being men. I also loved watching Tim with Sandy. They were the true meaning of a team. They were a beautiful couple. The kind you see out somewhere sitting on the same side of the booth giggling at inside jokes. You could tell he cherished her. They had that kind of love everyone wants to have, and only few are lucky enough to find. I felt so blessed to be witness to that love. And I wanted Gideon to have that compassion. That love. One day we will tell him stories of his wonderful namesakes. I hope he has the traits of these wonderful men. And I hope he knows how special they are and how much more blessed we are for having had them in our lives.

Patrick was chosen for Noah's father, who passed away just 12 days after we were married. I did not know him well, but what I do know of him is wonderful. And I know that the man I married attributes a lot of himself and who he is to having had this wonderful, hands on dad. I know Pat also valued his family about all else save for the Lord. I know he was strong in his faith and big on sharing it. I know that he was also sarcastic to a fault and had no sense of direction. I love that!

I hope one day that my boy will grow into his big, long name. And I hope he's proud of it. I hope he speaks it with his head held up, knowing that he is one in a long line of great O'Reilly men. I hope that he learns what it is like to be a great man from his father, who has learned his lessons from his father and uncle. It is sad that Gideon will never know his namesakes, but I hope through stories, they'll never be forgotten, and he'll have a great desire to grow up and make them proud. And I hope one day he'll forgive us for making his initials TP. Hehe...