Our Firstborn - Preston Harris Weed, IV

So, one month after my "Isaac Moment", I found out I was pregnant! I was ecstatic. I also felt very strongly from the beginning of the pregnancy that the baby would be a boy. Now, before we were even married, I knew Preston wanted to carry on the tradition of naming our firstborn son the same name that he, his dad, and his grandfather had - Preston Harris Weed - but our son would be the Fourth, so Preston Harris Weed, IV and we had decided early on that he would go by Harris. However, after having identified so much with Hannah and her baby son, Samuel, I really wanted to name our son, Samuel. I started talking to Preston about it (mind you, this was still very early in the pregnancy and I didn't even have proof yet that we were having a boy). However, Preston was resolute, we would follow the tradition and not waver from it at all (I had suggested Preston Samuel). I was a little upset because I felt like God wanted me to name him Samuel, but I also knew I needed to submit to my husband's authority. So I prayed about it. God led me to look up the meanings of the name's "Samuel" and "Preston". Samuel means "asked of God" and Preston means "priest's estate". Do you see it?! The meaning of Samuel described our son, because we definitely asked God for him, and the meaning of Preston is what Samuel was!!! Samuel was given to the Lord and raised in the temple by the priest, he was the priest's estate!! How cool of God to do that for me and to lead me to discover it!

So Preston Harris Weed, IV was born in December of 2002. (note to future parents: don't ever say you don't ever want a child to be born at "such and such" time of year, because God has a sense of humor and will allow your first born to be born at that time. not that it matters now. we wouldn't have changed it for the world.) He was your average baby, not to difficult and not super easy, either. I was a nervous wreck about the reality of being a mom, though. But we made it through those early days and loved our little blessing will all our hearts.

Okay, here is where I start bragging a little. Harris loves to learn, and learns quickly. He always has. He also has amazing control over his emotions - when he chooses to use self-control. When he was just two years old, my mom accidentally knocked a small pillow off of a shelf in a department store and it hit Harris in the face. She could tell it startled him and thought for sure he would start to cry. His eyes welled up with tears, and his bottom lip went out, but he just looked at her and sucked his breath in like he was trying to keep from crying. Before he was 20 months old, Harris knew his ABC's by memory and recognized their shapes, and he could count to 10! By the time he was 3, he knew all the sounds the letters made. By 4 years old, he could count to 100 and sound out small words. Now that he is 5, he can read any of the "I Can Read" or "Easy Reader" books and he can read words off of signs, boxes, bottles, just about anything. If he can't sound out a word, he'll ask what it is and from that one time, he'll know it the next time he reads it. He will start Kindergarten at my alma mater, Shades Mountain Christian School, in August.

Harris prays at his 2 year-old birthday party.

Harris also knows the Lord as His personal Savior and Lord. I prayed all throughout my preganacy that he would come to know Jesus personally at the youngest possible age. Right before he turned 3, there were lots of programs and talk in general about the Christmas story, and one night we watched a local station, which aired a church's musical that told the whole story of Jesus's life on earth, from birth to ascension. Harris watched the entire thing with me and asked questions all throughout it. "Why is that baby in the hay?" Why is that man hanging on the cross?" Why are all those people shouting at Him?" How did He get out of that hole?" I was praying the whole time that God would give me the ability to explain it in such a way that his little mind would understand and that God would use it to convict him of his need for Jesus. After that program, he kept asking questions, and those questions eventually became, "Do I have sins in my heart?" "Does Jesus live in my heart?" "How can I get Him to?" I explained what sin was and why everyone has sin in their heart, and I explained how we pray to ask Jesus to come into our lives and wash away our sins. Finally, 2 days after he turned 3 years old, at bed time he prayed with me and accepted Jesus as His Savior! Praise the Lord!!

Harris and Amy Beth // Harris and David - Harris, 2; David - 3 mos.

Harris became a big brother when he was just 2o months old, and he is a great one most of the time. They love each other so much and play so well together. In the winter of 2006, he started telling me he wanted a baby sister. I told him he would need to pray and ask God for one. (I wanted another baby very much, but Preston wasn't so sure about it.) He prayed almost every night for a baby sister (not a brother, because he already had one of those). One day he told my mom, "I'm going to have a baby sister". Mom asked him when and he said, "I don't know, but she's coming." So, in May of 2007, we found out we were pregnant again. When we told Harris, he said, "My sister is coming!" We told him it could very well be a boy, but he was insistent that it was a girl. Sure enough, at the appointed time, the ultrasound confirmed what Harris seemed to have known all along, he was getting a sister! Since she has been born, he has been the sweetest, most loving big brother we could ask for. He is so careful with her, and is such a good helper with her. And she loves him, too. Whenever, he comes into her view, she gets a big grin on her face and starts kicking and waving her arms.

Harris is by no means a perfect child, but he is a blessing to us, and we are so thankful God entrusted him to us.

Harris' 4th birthday party! // Being silly is one of his favorite pasttimes!