Remembering Zachary Julian Johnson

This day, February 13, has come to be meaningful for our little family, because it was the day two years ago that we said goodbye to our first tiny son. He was not with us very long -- I carried him for about 11 weeks, and two of those were after we discovered his heart was no longer beating -- but he had a huge impact on our lives. We mourned his loss deeply then and remember him with sadness even now.

This year, our gift in his memory is to give him a name. His name has already been written in the Book of Life, as are the names of all of the holy innocents, but we wish to inscribe it here on earth, because we are his Mommy and Daddy, and always will be.

So, today we name him Zachary Julian. We selected his names from the names of Orthodox saints commemorated in the weeks surrounding his passing. "Zachary" is for the holy prophet Zechariah, whose prophetic ministry is described both in the Old Testament books of Ezra and Zechariah. His prophecies proclaim the coming, and second coming, of Christ, which is our true and only hope. The name Zachary means "The Lord remembers," which we affirm to be true of all of His children, including our little Zachary; the whole world may forget, but the Lord remembers His own. His middle name, Julian, means "youthful". Julian is also the name of the town where we honeymooned, so it evokes very special memories for us and is a reminder of our love for each other.

Life is a gift, no matter how short, how small, or how insignificant it may seem. Life is something to celebrate... and to honor. So, today we celebrate the life of our little Zachary.

Memory Eternal!

P.S. - Most parents who experience early miscarriage never know why a baby was lost or whether it was a boy or a girl, so we consider ourselves fortunate to know that Zachary was male and why he didn't survive. What we knew within a few weeks of his loss is that he had a condition called "triploidy," which means that he had a full extra set of chromosomes. The pregnancy was further challenged by an abnormal placenta due to what is known as a partial (or incomplete) molar pregnancy. By the time we had the first ultrasound at 9 weeks, Zachary's heart was not beating. While learning about his genetic condition didn't make it any easier to go through the loss at the time (in fact, it even made it a bit more scary because of the small risk of cancer that goes with molar pregnancy), and while it took me almost two years to finally ask about his gender, we consider it a gift now to have anything that helps us to understand him, and his loss, better.

Why name a child who didn't live long enough to be born? We think there are lots of reasons, many of which are articulated on this website: Naming the Child. We believe the site is a beautiful resource for those who have lost a child to miscarriage, stillbirth and infant death. We found it just a few days after finding out that the baby we lost was a boy and deciding to name him, which we are sure was not an accident!