Our Littlest Sunflower

Jon and I were SO elated when we opened the message telling us this last baby would be a girl, for many reasons, but one of them being that we were really over naming boys. 

You may remember that Jon likes traditional easy to spell and pronounce names and I prefer them to be off the charts unusual, but not hard to spell or understand. 

This time, Jon gave me a gift in allowing us to branch out to a very unique name. It’s probably safe to say no one else has ever had quite her combination of names.

Introducing....

Aphia Girasol Charles 🌻 

Aphia comes from the book of Philemon in the Bible. It means Increasing. She was likely Philemon’s wife and it is perfect that she was referred to as “beloved sister.” We took the liberty of removing the extra P the Bible uses (Apphia) to make it easier to spell and pronounce.

Girasol is the Spanish word for Sunflower. It literally means Turn to the Sun. It was Angie’s original name in Bolivia before she switched to Angelica (see story here.)

So Aphia Girasol means Increasingly Turn to the Sun.

I love the thought of our beloved Aphia being a ray of sunshine in this sometimes dark world. She is already a beautiful light to our family. And our goal for her life is that she would increasingly turn to the Son, Jesus. If she reflects His glorious Light I'm sure others will increasingly turn toward the Son through her little life. 

I'll leave you with this excerpt from Angie's 16th birthday post about Sunflowers:

Angie, mi Girasol, if you remember from the vast fields of sunflowers in Bolivia, they are drawn to the direction of the Sun, and when they face skyward they are in their full glory. Sweet Girl, you too, will be your most glorious, your most beautiful, exactly the perfection you were created to be, when you face heavenward, and look to the Son. Thank you for bringing so much light into our family. I know God will use you to shine into the lives of so many others for a long long time. 

Aphia, that applies to you as well now, mi Girasol.

Mis dos Girasoles 🌻 

Here is her print of the scriptures we chose for her, some from the book of Philemon and others about Increasing as her name suggests.

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." -Matthew 5:16