About one year after moving to Columbia, and 10 years of marriage, Jiyeong Jang and Sanghoon Shin welcomed their first child on New Year’s Day, a boy who was the first baby born in 2025 in Howard County.

The baby, Joshua Heesung Shin, was born at 3:27 p.m., Jan. 1, at the Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center, weighing 6 pounds and 9.1 ounces and measuring 20 inches at the time of his birth.

His arrival also marks the first baby in the county born into Generation Beta, the generation succeeding Generation Alpha, made up of those born from 2025-2039.

Everything is exciting for the new parents, both 37, who were still in disbelief last week about bringing their first child into the world.

“We’ve been married for 10 years, and after 10 years of marriage, we finally got our little boy,” Shin said.

The couple is originally from South Korea and moved to Columbia from Rockville when they found out they were having a child. Shin said they thought Columbia would be a great place to raise a newborn.

When deciding on Joshua’s middle name, their family members in South Korea weighed in. Jang said their family prayed for the name, and both her mother and Shin’s father came up with the name Sung, which means holy.

The couple decided to use Sung, but wanted to add joy to the name to symbolize the Christian group where they met as students at Korea University. The group was called Joy, and believes that comes from putting Jesus first, others second and yourself third. The couple added Hee, which means joy, and ended up with Heesung, translating to “Holy Joy.”

The baby was originally scheduled to be delivered on Christmas Eve, Shin said, so his birth was unexpected. They ended up arriving at the hospital at about 8 a.m., Dec. 30 and almost forgot about the new year. Usually, Shin said, they would attend church service on New Year’s Eve, but when a nurse reminded them of the holiday, they turned on the television.

Now that the baby has been born, just watching him has been a miracle, Jang said.

“We tried to have him for a very long time, like almost two and a half years, and finally we got him. So, after he was born, I was really happy, and I cannot believe it and I cannot still believe it, and I’m really thankful for that,” Jang said.

Jang’s labor involved nearly two hours of pushing, she said, and she reached a point when she almost wanted to give up, but nurses all around were her cheering her on. One even volunteered to stay longer after her shift ended at 3 p.m. Shin said he was thankful for all the support from the doctors and nurses at the hospital.

Through the excitement, Jang said if the couple can, they would have more children in the future. “We’ll see,” she said.

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