Introducing… Jonathan Michael Bean

"For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.”

1 Samuel 1:27-28, NRSV

Jonathan Michael Bean entered the world on 4th April 2023 at 5:45pm, weighing 8lbs 7oz.

The Birth
The weeks preceding his birth were incredibly difficult. Between 17th February and 4th April, Stephanie was admitted to the hospital five times for overnight monitoring (which often turned into multiple night stays). That doesn’t include the many other times we spent long evenings in the assessment unit. And there were multiple points where we thought he might come… and he didn’t. The physical strain of being in constant pain for weeks sucked for Stephanie, but the emotional toil this had on both of us is hard to express fully.

Because of Jonathan’s breech position, we knew by the beginning of March that a caesarean section was likely. We were initially given 14th April as his arrival date, which would have been 39 weeks and 4 days. But, thanks to a very kind and understanding consultant, we were able to move that forward. We found out on 3rd April that little Jonathan would be born the very next day at 38 weeks and 1 day. Before we’d even been officially told, people were coming into Stephanie’s hospital room to take her blood, give her pre-op medication, and talk her through the anaesthetic procedure. It all happened very quickly, but there was something really special about being able to savour those last few moments as a family of two, knowing that tomorrow we would meet our son and our lives would change forever.

We had a wonderful C-section and recovery team. So, even though we had to wait until the very end of the day to go into theatre, it all turned out okay. And the recovery has been going fine so far. We know a C-section isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but our experience was pretty positive. Other than Steph’s extreme nausea midway through the procedure, it wasn’t nearly as bad (for us) as the internet would have you believe. The team did an incredible job of ensuring that the surgery was a beautiful way to meet our little one. So we’re extremely thankful!

Naming Baby Bean
When we left the 20-week ultrasound (where we found out that Baby Bean was a boy), we both had the same name in our head, albeit for different reasons! We've shared below the significance of his name and what it means to each of us.

Stephanie: At the beginning of the Gospel of Luke, we read of Elizabeth and Zechariah - a couple who had struggled to conceive. There's a brilliant story of how God tells Zechariah that his wife will have a baby. Zechariah doesn't believe God and is subjected to silence as a result. Thankfully, neither of us were forced through that, but I was definitely speechless upon discovering that I was pregnant! As many of you know, our fertility (or rather, infertility) journey began shortly after we got married in August 2017. By late 2021, I was beginning to take it personally - why did God have it out for me? (I know that isn't brilliant theology, but it's certainly how I felt.) And by summer 2022, after multiple investigations from doctors and specialists couldn't come up with an answer, I had resigned myself to being childless (at least biologically). Well, God clearly had other ideas! I found out I was pregnant on 5th August 2022. And, with hope and yet great trepidation, I began to prepare myself for the arrival of Baby Bean.

Back to Elizabeth and Zechariah... they are significant characters in the Bible for a few reasons. Most notably perhaps, Elizabeth is the cousin of Mary, mother of Jesus. At the end of Luke 1, Mary goes to visit Elizabeth to tell her she's pregnant with Jesus...

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

Luke 1:41-42, NRSV

Baby Bean has been very active in the womb! One of the first moments I felt him really kick was before one of the morning services at church. I was leading worship that day so was praying with everyone involved in the service. The vicar prayed using these classic words: 'Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.' The little person in my womb seemed to leap in response. I was reminded of this moment in Scripture, of the little baby who "leaped" in response to the coming of Jesus. That baby was John the Baptist - the one who would come before Jesus, who committed his life to preparing people to welcome him.

So, when we found out our baby was indeed a boy, Jonathan was the name that came to my mind (even if John and Jonathan are slightly different names etymologically). My hope for our baby is not just that he grow into a faithful follower of Jesus, but that he will lead others into God’s loving embrace also. The name itself means 'God has given.' And, just as Elizabeth and Zechariah waited patiently for their son, so too did we wait for Jonathan. I do believe he is a gift from God. While he has not yet been born as I write this, I like to think he will be worth the wait. In many ways, he already has been.

Michael means 'who is like God?' in Hebrew. I'll let Andrew tell the story of how we became sure that this would be Jonathan's middle name. For me though, I liked this simply because it is Andrew's middle name. I am so fortunate for the many positive role models Jonathan has to look up to in life, in love and in faith, but I am so unbelievably grateful that he has Andrew as his dad. It may seem ordinary that one would hope their son would grow up to be like their father, but I know that's not always the case. While no one is like God (as the name Michael tells us) and no one comes even close, Andrew has so many of the qualities that we read about in Scripture as descriptors of God. He is "gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love," just as God is described in Psalm 145. I would not have made it through this pregnancy without the compassion and kindness of Andrew, and I hope that our son will grow up to have the same humility and love as his dad. Honouring Andrew in our son's name made sense to me... and JAB didn't seem like the best initials!

Bean is the Bean family name. That one was easy to choose!

Andrew: We started looking for names by going through lists of biblical and historical names and looking for names where we liked both the meaning and the namesake. Jonathan comes from Hebrew, meaning “the LORD has given”. We have been given many blessings, but having kids has been a challenge, so this feels like a special blessing that we want to honor. The first biblical namesake of Jonathan is the son of Saul and dear friend of David. He was loyal and sought to do what was right at great personal cost, and we hope our Jonathan will have similar strength of character. John, the Greek version of the name, is also shared by John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, which gives our Jonathan more options for good examples. We appreciated that although all three of these were great men, they are best known for using their life in service of God, and pointing to Jesus.

Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.
Who is like me? Let them proclaim it, let them declare and set it forth before me.

Isaiah 44:6-7a, NRSV

Another Hebrew name, Michael means “Who is like God?”. It is my middle name as well, and Steph was advocating for it, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to name someone after myself. We had agreed on Jonathan, but were torn on middle names. The next morning, I went to morning prayer and the passage was Isaiah 44:1-8, which describes the LORD forming a child in the womb and ends with the rhetorical question “Who is like God?”. I thought this was pretty convincing evidence that we should go with Michael.

So… that’s how Baby Bean came to be Jonathan Michael Bean.

Thank You!
Our journey to parenthood hasn’t been easy but we’re so grateful for the love and support that you - our friends and family - have shown us. We are so full of gratitude :)