Ella Nyah Marie

Soon after Mandi and I were married on June 29th, 2002, she began to talk about wanting to have a little girl one day and name her Ella. Like most newly married 21 year old guys, I used to get nauseous everytime my beautiful bride would talk about having kids......an old friend once told me that "seasons change and things change...and perhaps..people change". Gabriel Thomas is here and mams is pregnant with our second child and I still get nauseous from time to time, but now only because Gabe loves to be spun around in circles while riding on my shoulders! :) For those who do not know Gabe's story when he was just a "bun in the oven"....it's worth the telling....I'll just say that the oven got too hot over the course of 4 days. Mandi was 30 weeks pregnant and she got a kidney stone. This wasn't uncommon as Mams had already given birth to several illegitimate "kid" stones in her young adult life. This stone, however, didn't play by the rules. It caused an infection to set into Mandi's kidney. I'll make this short....Mandi was in the hospital for 4 days. Her fever pushed 104 several times. The doctors would pile bags of ice all over her as she lay in her bed. They had to give her medicine to stop contractions. Gabriel's heartrate stayed up over 210 beats/min. for extended periods of time on several different occasions....Our Lord protected both him and his mother through this time....
When we got pregnant again, I remember thinking to myself that this one would seem easy....well...you know the rest....and it definitely hasn't been easy. But I will say that I have never felt more blessed in my life. God is sustaining my family and showing us grace, mercy, & love through it all. One of the miracles we have seen is the protection of our little unborn Ella Nyah Marie. Let me tell you about her name.....I already mentioned Mandi's love for the name "Ella". She also has always wanted to pass on the name "Marie". It is her Grandma Zetta's middle name as well as her own.....and now for "Nyah"....Since the accident, Mams and I have talked about wanting to give Ella a name that would be significant to the protection that God has shown her. "Nyah" is a variant form of an African Swahili name meaning "purpose". We believe in that purpose for Ella, and we want it to be a part of her name so that everyone will always remember it. If the Lord ever leads you to pray for our family, open your Bible and read these two Psalms as prayers over Gabriel Thomas and Ella Nyah Marie. Psalms chapter 86 for Gabriel and Psalms chapter 40 for Ella, and Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10-20 for Mams and I.