Why was Jake named Jake?

Today is Jake's one month birthday! Happy Birthday Jake!! 1 month, he was only born 1 month ago. That just amazes me. It doesn't feel that way. Tyler and I visited his grave this evening and my mom had found cute flower pinwheels and put those at his grave. they are cute.

I wanted to tell you all how Jake got his name. Back in September, when we had our ultrasound that told us something might be wrong, we also found out we were definitely having a boy. There wasn't even a question about it, he was ALL BOY! :) That night we took the kids out to dinner and had them figure out if it was a boy or girl. Payton (7 yrs old) figured out it was a boy by the ultrasound! It was pretty funny! Payton was so happy and proud to be getting a baby brother! He was so excited to share a room and play with a little brother!

5 days later we found out the fateful news that our much wanted baby had HLHS. We didn't tell any of our kids about his problems right away because we didn't want them worrying, and we didn't know what would happen. We were waiting for the results from the amniocentesis and to keep us busy we were painting our living room. One evening Payton came in to me and said, "Mom, I think I know what we should name our baby. We should name him Jacob and call him Jake."

I thought it was so cute! From that point on, I always wanted him to be named Jacob, but call him Jake. All of us loved it right away, except for Tyler. We took the next 4 months trying to convince him. He was being outvoted 4-1. Finally, in the hospital, he was consenting to Jacob, and said he liked Jake, just didn't love Jacob, so we figured if he was being called Jake, we might as well name him Jake! Hence, he was named Jake by his older brother, Payton.

We wanted a middle name that represented someone we love and a family name. We chose Alan after Tyler's Dad's middle name. Tyler's Dad passed away just over 2 years ago and we wanted to honor him. Jake actually has the same initials as his Grandpa! His full name was Jerry Alan Dennison. JAD. Now he is up in heaven with his Namesake!

The photo above was when Payton was reading a book to Jake. The book was called "Come and Play Jake." Payton knew that it would help Jake get better and that Jake would love to be read to. It was so sweet and still makes me cry.

You can see the pride in Payton's eyes to be a big brother.

We bought a picture book for Maddie and Payton to put pictures of Jake in and Payton carries it everywhere and shows it to everyone he meets. It is so sweet. The night we came home without Jake, Payton was crying because Jake was supposed to sleep on the bottom bunk of Payton's bunk beds. He also asked lots of questions about why the doctors couldn't fix his heart and why he had to die. It was really hard to explain things to him that I have a hard time answering myself. I hope and pray this experience makes him want to live better to be with his little brother forever! He prays for him every night! He is such a sweety and I hope he keeps that innocence and love for Jake forever!