His Name.

With much anticipation, we are announcing the name of our little man who we eagerly await meeting today or tomorrow...

Eli Joseph Kasowski

We named him this for two reasons:

1) The meaning — "My God increases." (Eli [אלי] means "my God" and Joseph [יספ]means "increases.") We named him this because after his sister passed away last year, we weren't sure if we would be able to have kids again. But our God increased. He blessed us with this little man, Eli Joseph.

2) To honor his sister — The way it's pronounced in Hebrew sounds like "Maelee" without the "M." We'll pronounce it the English way though.

Fun fact #1: Jesus said his name.

Remember that phrase Jesus says when he's on the cross in Matthew 27:46, "Eli, eli lema sabachthani"? "Eli" means "my God," so he was saying, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Fun fact #2: Eli isn't short for Elijah.

When Jesus said that phrase on the cross, people thought he was calling Elijah. But he wasn't. He was prophetically quoting Psalm 22. Back in those days they didn't say things like, "Open your Bibles to Psalm 22," because they didn't have chapters and verses marked out in the Bible. So to direct people to a specific psalm, they would just quote the first line. So Jesus was talking about how he was fulfilling many of the prophesies in Psalm 22 ... he was a person who was suffering for doing nothing wrong. "All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads ... I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint ... I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me ... they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing."

Fun fact #3: Eli doesn't mean Eli.

The Eli from 1 Samuel 1-2 (the head priest with the wayward sons) and Eli (Joseph Kasowski) are different names. The former is spelled with the Hebrew letter ayin (ע). The latter is spelled with an aleph (א). Not a big pronunciation distinction, but enough to change the meaning of the name.

Did you guess it?

Not NY Giants fans (Eli Manning), his cousin Ali can spell it, Greg is studying Hebrew, the "Book of Eli" is actually a movie (and the Bible too!), not a "lie" has his letters, the last "e" in Maelee and the "li" in Linn spells it out!


AND... I'm off to the hospital! I didn't take my shot early enough this morning and my platlets are dropping, so the doctor is having me head to the hospital so they can give me the drugs while they monitor things... and get ready for induction later today or tomorrow.

Please pray for Eli!

-His Parents