Little Howard #3
Greetings everyone, as you might know from the title and pictures, we are preparing for little Howard number 3! We’ve been wanting to inform everyone for a while and thought it would be a good time to share the great news! Elizabeth is quickly approaching 17 weeks into her pregnancy and everything is going well.
Elizabeth has been talking about a Dragon baby since we had little Daniel (he is a tiger). We will make it just in time for our third little one to be born in the year of the dragon (I’m also a dragon). Her due date is the end of September to the beginning of October. While I do not really believe in the whole Chinese zodiac thing, I do believe that when we are born plays a tremendous role in our development. Whether we were born around the Great Depression (like my grandmother) etc, these historical events or circumstances will play a tremendous role in our development. So in that regard, I do think the Chinese are onto something. My wife says she doesn’t believe in the Chinese zodiac either, but she still wanted a tiger baby and a dragon baby… Hmm… LOL! Just teasing you sweetheart.
So I’m sure you are all wondering whether this third little one will be a boy or a girl? Well… At this point we do not know, the doctor has asked us to wait another 1-2 weeks to make sure it’s easier to identify the baby’s gender. In the meantime, we have been thinking of potential baby names and we have narrowed it down to a few possibilities. I thought I’d share some of our ideas with you guys!
- Abigail Emilia Howard= We thought this was a rather cute name and thought it would be nice to have a Portuguese-sounding name (like Emilia) since the baby was conceived here in Macau.
- Abigail Riley Howard= I’ve always liked the name Riley and it would be a great name considering it can be for a boy or girl.
- Abigail Elise Howard= I quite like this one because it’s French (but can also be used in English) for promised to God and is short for Elizabeth.
- Nathanial Riley Howard
- Jonah — Howard?
As you can tell, we have already decided Abigail will be the first name if it’s a girl, and we haven’t really decided if it’s a boy, though we do like Nathanial a lot. Any suggestions on a middle name for Jonah? Jonah Riley Howard sounds alright, but not the best. Elizabeth is still thinking of Chinese names. The birth certificates will have both an English name and a Chinese name. So both the Chinese and English names will be the baby’s legal names, just like Daniel. Unfortunately, when we had Noah, the Mainland Chinese government didn’t allow us to put two names on his birth certificate… 😦
Please keep us in your prayers, especially for a safe birth and healthy baby. We were denied insurance coverage from the insurance companies we were expecting to use and I am in the process of trying to save up enough for the birth. Here in Macau, the insurance companies told us that Elizabeth needed to get pregnancy insurance after she was pregnant, instead of getting the coverage before her pregnancy. We thought that was strange but rules and laws are different in different places. In Mainland China and the USA, you would need to have coverage before pregnancy, but we thought well that is how they do it here in Macau and apparently Hong Kong. We’ve talked with several insurance companies prior to Elizabeth getting pregnant and they all assured us that this was how it was done in HK and Macau. Well unfortunately she was denied coverage by several different insurance companies because she was diagnosed with pregnancy diabetes, which is a tendency for women to have high blood sugar when they are pregnant. The second thing is that we will be moving soon to Hong Kong, which brings more challenges. While hospital rates are reasonable here in Macau (like Mainland), they are much more expensive in Hong Kong. Then we have the move itself. So needless to say, that has concerned me. But we are putting it in the Lord’s hands and I’m holding onto a Bible verse I recently shared with a student of mine. Philippines 4:6-7
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
God bless you all and we will keep you posted about the gender reveal in the next couple of weeks!
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