It's A Boy!

And his name is…

Sorry my Tuesday article is running late this week.

I have the perfect 7 lb 8 oz excuse, I swear…

My wife’s contractions started Sunday night and remained 8-12 minutes apart all night and all Monday, straight through lunch and supper.

I expected we’d be up all night as with the last baby.

Then, at around 6pm, I was upstairs when Michelle screamed my name.

“The baby’s coming NOW!”

Her water broke and she had a brutal 6.5-minute contraction.

The hospital said to phone an ambulance.

The NHS arrived (incredibly) less than three minutes later.

So much for a nice pain-numbing epidural!

Within ten minutes, there was a beautiful baby on our dining room floor.

None of the five paramedics had ever delivered a baby before.

All performed wonderfully.

It’s a boy!

He has Daddy’s squished ear.

He has Mommy’s blue eyes.

He arrived right on schedule, right on his due date, exactly one month before Christmas.

He latched immediately and is drinking well.

His name is Henson Bailey Brock.

He’s named after Josiah Henson and George Bailey.

These two men mean a lot to me.

Josiah Henson was a Christian slave who chose to stay in slavery rather than murder his master when he had the chance.

Years later, when he did escape at age 42, he vowed to use his freedom well.

• The Prime Minister of Great Britain threw him a surprise banquet.

• Earl Grey offered him a job.

• The Archbishop of Canterbury wept after hearing his story.

• President Rutherford B. Hayes entertained him at the White House.

• Queen Victoria invited him to Windsor Castle.

• He won a medal at the first World’s Fair in London.

• He was the first African American to appear on a Canadian stamp.

• He was a Methodist Episcopal elder with a 300-mile district under his care.

• He rescued 118 slaves, including his brother.

• He helped build a 500-person freeman settlement, called Dawn, which was known as one of the final stops on the Underground Railroad.

• Inspired by his story, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a novel that helped spark the Civil War and led to the Emancipation Proclamation.

I like Josiah Henson so much that I published a biography on him and made a movie about him.

George Bailey hails from Frank Capra’s Christmas masterpiece It’s A Wonderful Life. (Here’s my article on the film.)

It’s about a man who works at building and contributing new useable value to others while fighting against the parasite shareholders, banksters, and land-lorders seeking to turn his town into a miserable cesspit of rent-seeking called Pottersville.

In the end, he wonders if he made a difference.

The answer — spoiler — is that people who actively love others instead of exploit them don’t end up rich in cash, but they do keep their humanity.

We have a pair of sons!

We’ve always said that we’d have up to two biological kids (sustainable replacement rate) and then try to adopt from there.

So we’re going to enjoy the next few months with the most intentionality imaginable, knowing we may never have another infant again.

Henson means “son of the home ruler.”

Bailey comes from “steward” in French.

As many long-term readers know, I don’t believe in human ownership.

Something as breathlessly temporary as a human can’t own permanent land.

We’re just stewards, caring for Someone else’s property on behalf of those who come after us.

My precious little child, may you steward your freedom well.

May you always stand up against the rich and powerful in defense of the poor and powerless.

May you grow to become a mighty son-steward of the only good and true ruler.

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A Devil Named Lucifer: Uncovering the Diabolical Life of Satan and How to Resist Him