The Myrtle Tree

Myrtle Tree

Things are headed in the right direction for Haddie this week. I havent posted in a while because not a lot has happened. Her bilirubin levels have gradually came down and soon she won't have to be under the bright blue lights that help her jaundice. She is being fed 12ml of milk through her feeding tube every 3-4 hours and is holding that down. All in all she is progressing pretty good. The coolest thing that has happened in the past 3 days has been the "kangaroo care". Kate and I love holding that little girl. I've posted the videos at the bottom of this blog.

The question we get from many of the nurses is "what does Hadassah mean" and "is that a family name" and my favorite, "are you all Jewish". Many of you know where the name comes from. I'll explain how we landed on it in a bit more detail.

Hadassah is the Hebrew name of Esther, the queen who saved the Jews from annihilation in what is known as the Purim. If you have never read this story, I strongly encourage you to read the book of Esther. She was a young queen who dared to face the king without invitation and accuse his right hand man Haman of plotting against her people. She is beautiful...but she is also brave.

But it goes deeper for us. Kate and I liked the name originally but we wondered what it meant in Hebrew. We looked it up and were a bit confused. It means "myrtle tree". It seemed odd to us to name our daughter after a tree. Looking deeper though we found in Zechariah 1:8 it says "⁸ During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine." It's talking about an angel here. The tree itself is very beautiful but also bitter. The Jewish writers said that was appropriate for Esther. She was beautiful to the king but bitter toward Haman. 

So basically the name means beautiful, fighter, brave, and chosen. We felt that very appropriate for our Haddie. Two other things sealed the deal. Kate and I both have great grandmas...mine with the name Myrtle and Kate's with the name Myrtie. And lastly, many myrtle trees can be found in Lebanon which is where my mother's family comes from. 

And so we chose Hadassah. And she has lived up to the name. Enjoy some pictures and videos from the past 3 days.

Bare Haddie and nurse Sharon

Kate holding Haddie 1





Kate holding Haddie 2




Travis holding Haddie