Saren Morgandy Nelson...come on down

I'm a little slow getting word out but I just wanted to let everyone know we did name our baby girl. We kept asking for feedback from family and thus went through a stack of names which

(shockingly) not all of our 15 siblings and their spouses loved. We finally made a decision to completely shut out outside input, although appreciated, and come up with her name on our own. Her name is Saren Morgandy...Saren (rhymes with Karen and means "joy"), and Morgandy meaning "little one from the edge of the seas". Sarah is a family name for both my family and Dave's that we loved but wanted to make a little different, since there are already two loved Sarah's in the family. As far as Morgandy is concerned, I was telling my Dad about her middle name and conceded it was kind of a crazy name, but that we loved the meaning and wanted her to have a reference to her Marshallese heritage in her name. My Dad said "No, honey - it's perfect! Middle names are supposed to be sh#*&y". To get even with him, I am publishing his heinous comment in this blog, and writing it in her baby book for all generations to read. Take that Dad! Anyway, we love her name and it is starting to fit her, like names always do, which makes it even cuter to me. Here is a cute picture of her little face and a common expression she makes.

Saren is a sweetie and so far such a calm, content, quiet baby girl. It was a fun homecoming for her to meet her big brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and see her Daddy again. Jacob and Edison are sweet with her and couldn't be happier to have their little sister at home. And when I say "home" I mean our old rental home without beds or furniture/the Holiday Inn in Price/ my Mom's house in Provo where we have traded off staying since Saren came to Utah. Jacob tells everyone he sees that he has a new baby sister and when "Grandma Grape" , as Eddie calls her, asked Jacob where he got such a beautiful little sister, he was excited to tell her "At the airport!" In fact, the first thing Jacob said when he saw me after two weeks was "Did you bring my baby sister home?" Jacob insists on holding Saren all the time and loves to feed her - it's hard for me to have a turn when he is awake. Jacob is a good boy to yell "Mom, I need a break!" when he is done holding the baby, which has been known to take anywhere from 10 seconds to 45 minutes to hear.


Eddie loves her and is mostly obsessed with whether she is asleep or awake, and likes to try to wake her up if she is napping so he can come and inform me "Baby awake".

She is beautiful and has the prettiest, pouty little mouth and beautifuk dark eyes and lots of hair, which I have no idea how to fix. Dave has looked at all our gorgeous Marshallese babies and said, "Seriously, we couldn't have made one this cute"!

We feel so thankful to adopt this little beauty and be the lucky parents of three! That is amazing. Dave and I never could have imagined what great blessings were in store for us. Each of our children have been miracles and it took more miracles for God to help them find their way into our family. We couldn't be more excited with our newest little one.