And his name is......

Names are HARD.

Naming your 6^th child is REALLY hard.

ESPECIALLY when you have created a name pattern that you are stuck in.

With Makenna, we just loved the name, that happened to start with M, like Mark. 

Sawyer, we just loved the name. That happened to start with S, like me. 

But then we realized that we were 2 S and 2 M names so when it came to Malaine it felt like she was being left out if we did not use the same letters.

And so it went, we followed the pattern for every child. Though Sage and Mavery got a bit confusing and out of order because Mavery is older than Sage but up for the M letter.

Mark, Shannon, Makenna, Sawyer, Malaine, Sage & Mavery

So we knew this boy of ours was going to be S and would then put our names back in order.

Mark, Shannon, Makenna, Sawyer, Malaine, S name, Mavery & Sage.

But there was a struggle. When I first met our son over a year ago while working at the orphanage, my girls on the team nicknamed him Taylor.

Because they said he looked like Taylor Lautner. He actually kind of does, doesn't he?? :-) 

So that has stuck. We have prayed for Taylor for the last year, we have loved him, and known him as Taylor.

He does not go by this, we just give the kids American names for us to keep track. Chinese names are just not as easy.

Getting past Taylor is difficult, but we knew it was an S name. Saylor was suggested, but I have always loved that for a girl.

We asked for suggestions, we  I looked on every name site out there, we prayed, we tried a few and one has finally settled.

It is still hard. But we hope by sharing with everyone else it will help it settle even more.

We know that many do not like our name choices, and that is ok. Yes, we like unique and different.We know everyone has thoughts and opinions, and that is ok too. You adopt, you name your child. We get to name this one. :-) 

And so our new son & brother will be named.....

 His full name will be Syler Blane ChenLang Laxton

Chinese part still being worked on so that is subject to change.

If you are curious, the ones we were choosing between were:

Shepherd (though I was the only one liking this) 

Shaw

Syler

Someone actually suggested Syler to me on Facebook and now I do not know who, but it went on my list and we all kept going back to that.

Actually Sawyer fought hard for Shaw, because he is studying Shaw in literature and said he’s cool.

But Syler just feels right. We can call him Sy for a nickname. Which has actually been on my list for YEARS. WAY before Duck Dynasty. :-) 

Blane is actually after his 2 uncles, Brett Laxton & Shane. We try to combine family names for all of our kids. 

Today we sent off a package we have been working on. Filled with love. We went to Build a Bear recently to build his bear and the lady asked his name. We told her and when she stuffed those hearts in that bear and said, you all are putting lots of love in for Syler, my eyes filled with tears. 

 To hear someone else say your child's name out loud, it just felt so right.

Syler, our son.  

And yes, we stuffed that bear full of love, a heart for each of us along with our voices. (which may or may not just scare him to death!) I hope Syler will feel all the love we have poured into that package and that it will give him hope. He is wanted, he is chosen and he is SO loved. 

 Mark, Shannon, Makenna, Saywer, Malaine, Syler, Mavery & Sage