Introducing Miss Avery Kate

Well... the name at least. :) It'll sure be fun to introduce her *for real* in June though. ;)

Thanks to everyone who gave us lots of ideas and input. It was fun hearing all of the suggestions!

It seemed that every name I would come up with, Jake would say "Mmm, its okay". Or "yeah its alright". But I didn't want it to be okay OR alright! And he came up with a couple of names that I liked but... didn't feel like they fit this baby. Several times I thought to myself- how on earth did we name 5 children (first and middle names) together?! Thats 10 names. And the last couple weeks, we could barely agree on one.

But we did agree on just one, and that was Kate. But the only problem was (and any moms who have named their biological babies, will understand this) I didn't feel like we were supposed to call her Kate.

So I was still holding out hope for a "dropped down from heaven" name.

And I got it. :) Actually I guess it all started with Emily puking in the middle of the night. (Didn't expect that, didya?) I was up almost all night with my sick little girl because I am not only a professional barfer, but Jake will indeed throw up himself if he see's, hears, or smells it. So while he has changed more than his fair share of diapers that were just.... wrong... and deserves major Daddy points for that, I am the one who handles any digestive upheavals in this house.

So, after being up all night with poor Em, I was exhausted. But I got the other kids ready for school the next morning, packed lunches, fed them all breakfast (including Emily who was fine by daybreak), got them all out the door, did some laundry, laid Mabry down for her morning nap, set Emily up on Starfall (which is awesome and you should check it out if you haven't already) with some reading, and *whew* took a nap on the couch.

Thats when it happened. I dreamed we were naming the baby. Go figure- not like I've been obsessed with naming her lately at all. ;) And in the dream, it was so clear. "She's Avery." I woke up, thought about it, and really liked it. Then I did my tester- talking to myself. Go ahead, laugh, but it works. I walked around my kitchen making lunch and talked out loud to no one, "Avery is kicking." "When I was pregnant with Avery..." "These are our children, Ashley, Emily, Micah, Abby, Mabry, and Avery" "You take the big kids and I'll take Avery with me." Yep, thats it.

But what about a middle name? Well, that only took about a fraction of a second to figure out. Avery Kate.

So I immediately contacted Jake.

Me:"What do you think of Avery Kate?"

{Please say you like it, please say you like it}

Jake: "I actually really like it" were his exact words :)

SCORE!

So after very minimal conversation, we both knew that was it.

YAY! She has a name!!! I might have been dancing around my kitchen. (Which I'm sure you don't find weird now knowing that I was minutes earlier talking to myself. I'm okay with that.)

And so she is. My little Avery Kate. The funny thing is, if I'm honest, it isn't my very favorite name that we've thought of. I mean, I think its ADORABLE, but there were others I did like more. But the thing is, when I say it, I know that she's Avery Kate. Its that simple. Theres not even a question in my head. And that makes me really happy. I want our kids to be who God has called them to be, starting with their names.

So... everyones first question: What does it mean?

Weeeeeell.... Avery actually means "Elf counsel" on a lot of baby names sites. :/ Hm. But my baby names book says: "Avery: see Audrey" and Audrey means Noble. So I'm going with that. :) Also, BabyCenter (which I kind of live by when I'm pregnant) says that Avery means Wise. :) Like that too.

And everywhere I look, Kate means Pure. Which I thought was super cool because of this message that I spoke to our youth girls a long time ago about the difference between innocence and purity... its a long story (or message) but, anyway it has a personal cool meaning to me. :)

Baby Avery, you are loved. You are so special. And now that I know your name, I'm having so much fun getting to know who Avery is. Right now, thats a squirmy little baby that was unexpected but is treasured. And kicks mommy constantly. :) I love you baby girl of mine.