2015 Washburn Messenger June 2015 | Page 13

Stover Family Welcomes By Pedro Rolon Burt Professor Maria Stover gave birth to her second baby on Friday, April 17 at 1:32 a.m. His name is Elias Michael and he joins Addison, Stover’s 12-year-old daughter. It has been a long wait for Addison, since she was already embracing the idea of having a baby brother long before Elias was born. “She calls it ‘my brother,’ so she’s already embracing the idea,” Stover said, “Probably being a single child for so long, she just thinks this is something cool so she is actually very, very excited and very supportive.” The pattern continues, as Stover said. In her family the first child is always a girl and the second one a boy. Maria Stover has a younger brother who has two children, the first a girl and the second a boy. Stover’s husband—Mike—has been very excited with the fact that they were having a baby boy. Stover said that he was already talking about the jam sessions they will have and EliasMichael how they will share the race car collection he owns. When it came to deciding the name for Elias Michael, Stover said that it was not easy. It wasn’t as easy as their first experience with Addison, when her husband picked a name and they both agreed on the first try and it wasn’t discussed any more. This time, they struggled. “We wanted something to work in both cultures, which is not very easy, that’s one of the hardest things,” Stover said, “I mean there’s a lot of names that could translate, but, you just have to find, I’ll say, the right ring to it.” Stover said that her 12-year-old daughter also voiced her opinion during the process. Addison suggested that he should be named Preston after her favorite blogger. Now, with Elias Michael on board, Stover had to take a maternity leave, and for the first time in her career she did not finish the semester. Kathy Menzie, Regina Cassell and Frank Chorba filled in for her in Advanced Media Lab, Visual Communications and Media Literacy. Photos courtesy of Maria Stover In the fall, Stover will return to campus to teach Visual Communication, Media Literacy, Internship and Independent Study. page 13