January 2020

• Other activities besides the normal during the month of January: We let the kids have two sleepovers and several play dates; went on a coffee and game date; my mom joined us for half the month to help me start packing; Ricky had countless meetings; visited many friends to say our final goodbyes; had two appointments with doctors and found out that this baby is a boy(!); our home church had a commissioning service sending us out as missionaries (see video); had my 20th spiritual birthday; closed on our first house; gave away our tv screen to a family; got to share at a church; enjoyed a final small group (party for us!); drove to our new home to pray over it; and, held a gratitude party to honor, thank and say goodbye to everyone who has helped us do life in Morganton through stories, food and gifts (mini bags of coffee) :)
• For Lent, Ricky is rising at 6:30 every morning and I am trying to guard my speech so as to not speak death but life over myself.

• School verses for the new school year: Aolani and Micaiah -- James 1:5
• Verses I memorized: I am working on memorizing Psalm 103 for this baby.

“And his name shall be called...”

Boy #3:

MORGAN ISRAEL DIMARTINO 

Morgan: We initially thought of Morgan as we wanted to memorialize our time living in Morganton. Morgan is a Welsh name that used to be a boy name but has become unisex (we know two boys named Morgan and two girls named Morgan). It means “sea-chief” or “sea-defender.” We love that because God has really been moving our hearts for the sea peoples, like those in Melanesia, the Sentinel Islands, and elsewhere. Lastly, Micaiah really wanted another name to begin with ‘M’ since there are two ‘A’ names and two ‘R’ names in the family :)

Israel: All of our children’s middle names are from Aidan’s side of the family, to give them honor. Aidan’s brother is named Jacob, and God changed the Jacob-of-the-Bible's name to Israel after Jacob had spent the night wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22-28). Hence, Israel means “perseveres with/triumphant with God." Also, we wanted to keep the theme going by including a Hebrew name in each boy’s name.

DiMartino: "Di" is Italian for "of, from" and "Martino" is allegedly a mountain in Italy from whence the ancestors originate. "Martino" is derived from "Mars," the Roman god of war.

It’s our easiest kid name to pronounce ;)

So, our family consists of AAA for the girls and RMRM for the boys!