Nai Nai

I now have 4 grandmother names.  Our oldest granddaughter named me Gran.  Then my oldest grandson named me Gee.  Actually, the oldest child of each of my children chose a new name.  So the next grandson named me Guh.  I'm still waiting to see if Dax uses one of these names or comes up with one of his own.
While I was in Asia, I acquired a new grandmother name--Nai Nai (Ni-Ni).  It's how you say grandmother in Mandarin.
We have 6 "daughters" in Asia.  Our fellowship sponsored them to go to school beyond the 8th grade and we have known them about 12 years or more.  Many of them were very young when we first met them.  And now they're all beautiful young women---with boyfriends and husbands.  And this is the first "grandchild" born to us of Asian descent.  The most amazing thing is that they don't typically name their children until they're a year old.  But as soon as this beauty was born, Andy & I were given the privilege of giving her an English name.  We named her Abigail...but call her Abby.  She's precious.  Interestingly, the patriarch of the family has given them 3 names to choose from for her middle name.  That name will be significant for the family---it's the way they know which generation of the family she's from.  Since Abby is the first of her generation of this family, the name her parents choose will be the name used for each successive child of this generation.
We got to see her several times while we were there and her parents were calling us Ye Ye (Yeh-Yeh--Grandfather) and Nai Nai.  Of course, I couldn't help but kiss her all over and told her I was giving her Nai Nai kisses.  The father doesn't speak English but for some reason, this really stuck.  He would laugh every time I kissed her and say, "Nai Nai kisses!"
I laughed when I saw her mother was reading "Baby Wise" in Mandarin.  It's so contrary to their culture, but they're giving it a try.
Abby is adorable.  Mom & Dad promised to raise her knowing she has a Ye Ye and Nai Nai in America.  A Nai Nai who gave her lots and lots of Nai Nai kisses.  We left pictures of us for Abby to see so she'll know us.  The exciting thing is Abby will be the first to grow up hearing about Jesus from the beginning of her life.