SNow, snow, snow.. wonderful snow... and lots and lots of it! It has been snowing since after midnight and it is now 4:23 pm. It hasn't stopped and doesn't appear to be going to stop soon. Right now it is coming down in big flakes. An hour ago, it was sleeting. Mark and I have spent at least 3 hours shoveling. It took us 2 hours the first time, and at least another hour the second time. And now.. there is at least 1/2-1 inch layer on the drive of icy snow. Looks like we will be heading out again before the night is through.
The kids are happy for a big snow day. If it continues, they won't be in school tomorrow either. Everyone is sad for Emily if that is the case. Emily turns 16 tomorrow and really wanted to be in school on her birthday. She is getting use to the idea that she may not see her friends though. Sam was so sweet. We were praying as a family for Ri and our trip to China. Sam prayed specifically for school to be in tomorrow just for Emily. It was precious.
Since Em is turning sweet 16 tomorrow, I thought I would honor her with a few pictures. One is of her and a few of her closest friends. They are wonderful girls and very good friends to Emily. The other picture is of her precious Aunt Susan. Which leads me into my next big announcement.
We have had 3 beautiful daughters. With Emily, she was our first and we never thought about honoring someone by naming our child after them. It never entered our mind. When Erin was born, we labored in the hospital on Susan's birthday. We decided, then, that if Erin was born on Susan's birthday we would name her Erin Susan. Well, she wasn't born then and so we kept Erin Michal. Silly, but we hadn't thought...again.... about the honor of naming Erin after her. After all... there really isn't anyone quite like thier Aunt Susan. She loves them almost more then Mark and I do. She is one of the most precious, priceless, and incredible women I know. I love her very deeply and would be so thankful if any of our children grew up to be as thier Aunt Susan! It truly would be an honor for them to have her name. Anyways, by the time Sam was born, we realized that he would probably be our last child, so we gave him a middle name of Donald Douglas; to honor both of his grandfathers. We were quite positive that Sam was the last baby. (ha ha).
Well, surprise,.. we discovered that we would be blessed with Jacob. When he was born, we gave him the middle name of Oliver to honor Mamaw's father. He was an incredible man of God who live a life worthy of following. We had no idea that we would be blessed with another child. When we found out the Elizabeth would be our daughter, the whole journey had been a family journey and so her name became a vote. We knew that we wanted to keep her middle name as her Chinese name. In hind sight, I wish that we had given Elizabeth Susan's name instead of Lee. But.. Lee had been a very priceless part of our beginning of our journey. We almost had to keep it in her name.
So.. we come to our precious son, Ri. We have been waiting and waiting to announce his full name. It has taken a while, but as a family, we have decided that there is someone very special who we would like to honor by giving Ri his name. We will be calling Ri, Ri because we have been calling him that since September. It has grown on us and we have all come to love the name. It is pronounced something like "zi" in Chinese (we still can't really figure it out), but we pronounce is as "REE". Hope that helps some of you.
Well, we definitely want Ri to have an American name. It will be his first name and Ri will be his middle name. There is a very special Uncle in the kids life that we have decided to name him after... Uncle Paul. Paul is much like Susan. Neither have children, but have taken our children as if they are thier own. Both would give thier lives for any of our kids. They have opened thier hearts, homes and arms for all of them. Elizabeth is just as loved as the other 4 kids. It is precious. There is something extra special with Paul and Elizabeth. I can't explain it, but there is. Elizabeth adores her Uncle. I think she has him wrapped around her fingers more then any of the kids. He lights up in a way that I haven't seen in anyone else. But far more then his love for the kids is his love for Christ. There are so many reason that we want Ri to be named after Paul that I can't possibly go into it.
At any rate, we finally shared it with Uncle Paul so now I can share it with all of you. Little Ri... your name sake is a man of God who loves you and prays for you daily. He can't wait to get his hands on you and share his love with you.
So... Ri's name will, officially be....
PAUL LIU RI CHEN MILLER
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