You named your baby Romney...?

Introducing Romney Hayes Hanna
Born 3/21/14

7lb 10oz, 19" long 

Hey, all.  This is my first post on our blog!  It is an historic one because my basketball team is complete!  5 boys!  You will be seeing photos of the team once I get all the jerseys from Amazon Prime.

  

I wanted to let you know that Paige wouldn’t let me name him Kobe, LeBron, or Jordan so we went with Romney.  What???  You didn’t know that Mitt Romney was a balla?  Ok, he isn’t one in that sense but I felt that I should explain our choice in naming our future hoop star.

So....we are not Republicans

To your surprise, Paige and I don’t claim to be republicans or actually belong to any group.  We are pretty turned off by our current political system.  We love America and the constitution but feel that the jokers we have in office are more worried about re-election than making the best choices for our country.  Side note - Paige did help campaign for Romney in Vegas 2012.  It was fun to get involved in the elections, even though we didn’t agree with Mitt’s political stance on every issue.  It probably helped that we weren’t turned off by his religious beliefs either since we too are crazy Mormons.  I’m sure there was a little bias there since we are active in our church. 

After four boys, we were recycling names once we found out another boy was in the oven.  Paige ended up suggesting the name Romney after she bought Ann Romney’s cookbook at Costco (the greatest store on Mother Earth).  Both of us thought it actually was a really cool first name but I wasn’t in love with it. 

It wasn’t until we attended the Sundance Film Festival and saw the documentary “Mitt” that I felt like the name Romney would be a winner.  Yes I know he lost, twice.  The name Romney is a winner to both of us because of the amazing people that the Romney’s are even though we have never met any of them.  Our opinion has come from those that do know them in addition to what we saw and heard from the stories said about them at the republican convention, stories written in Ann’s cookbook and from what we witnessed behind the scenes in the Netflix documentary. 

Family Culture

Paige and I have had great conversations about the characteristics we saw in the Romney’s and how our hopes are the same for our family.  The name Romney will be a reminder to us about the type of family we want to have.  I’m sure you all have a family that you admire and think, “man, that is a perfect family and I would love it if it if mine were similar.”  It’s also fun to know they have 5 boys, just like us.

At the beginning of the documentary, you see the Romney’s sitting around their coffee table with Mitt asking his family pros/cons of running for President of the United States.  One of the kids speaks up and says, "...this is just like we did when we talked about pros/cons of career paths we wanted to go down.”  How many families get together and have any type of discussion of major decisions in their lives?  I loved seeing the whole family involved in each others big decisions and want to follow that example.

We are already on the right path in playing and praying together as we saw the Romney’s do.  Our oldest son, Drake, is 6 and with 5 boys that close in age, they are all already best friends.  It is so fun to see.  Before every meal and after brushing teeth before bed, they already have a habit of kneeling down and praying.  I sometimes forget, but our boys remind me the second I shut out the lights and start to leave their rooms. 

In reading Ann’s cookbook, Paige saw how she developed some tricks to manage a family of that size, like dressing her kids in their church clothes before going to bed on Saturday night knowing they had early morning church. Mitt was a pastor and spent the majority of his Sunday’s teaching and taking care of his congregation.  Ann had to learn to manage with a husband that traveled frequently for work, and in reading about the Romney’s, Paige was given hope that she’d be able to take care of all of her boys, including the one on its way, while I’m out traveling.    

As father and husband, I feel a large weight on my shoulders.  I believe that strength and happiness come from gratitude.   It was inspiring to me to see Mitt’s understanding of this.  As he knelt in prayer in the documentary, he gave thanks for his wife and her strength and support.  Going into his first Presidential Debate, Mitt wrote the word Dad and drew a picture of a sun.  When his kids asked what his notes meant, he shared that it is because of his father’s efforts that Mitt is where he is today.  He also wanted to let his light shine while in front of the worldwide audience (Matt 5:16).  It blows me away that a man that successful in life, goes into moment like that, giving thanks to his earthly father was well as his heavenly father.  I have a lot to learn.

Paige and I know that marriage and raising 5 boys isn’t easy and that we will have our ups and downs but we would like to set our goals high and have examples of good families to follow.  We love our family and hope that when Paige and I are close to 70 years old (as are the Romney’s), we will have a family knit in unity and love.  Baby Romney will hopefully remind us of that goal the rest of our lives.