Dear Alice Wrenae...

This is how you were named!

One day Momma finally conceded that you might be a girl instead of a boy. So Daddy suggested we go visit Barnes & Noble and pick up a name book. It was HUGE! Over 100,001 names. So Daddy and I went to Red Robin and ate dinner while we started looking through the names. None popped out right away, but that was okay.

So for a couple of weeks, Momma started building a list of names from the book. I had read through the Gs when the day came for your ultrasound. Then we found out you were going to be a girl! I was relieved that, at least, I had started looking at names. So I sat down and started reading the list to Daddy. As I read through the Es, Daddy gave me a name I had thought of but hadn't yet wrote down and that name was Alice! Daddy immediately paired Alice with Emery (which was also on the list). So he decided to call you Alice Emery until I decided on your name.

Over the past 7 weeks, I have been deliberating over all the possible names. At one point I had over 80 names picked out. It was easy to start weeding out names - especially after I started trying to match first names and middle names. That was the biggest challenge! Finding two names that work together! Eventually I had the names narrowed down to 5 possible first names and 4 possible middle names. During the past week, it was down to 2 first names and 3 middle names.

One of the important things I wanted to do was to make sure you had some part of my name included in your name. My name was picked out by your Papa. "Susan" is because my Mamma's and Mother's middle names were Sue. The story behind "Renee" I heard a long time ago and your Papa keeps telling me he's going to tell me the story again ... and when he does I'll tell you. I had debated on using Renee as a first name or a middle name. I had also considered using Dorene (a derivative of Doris, my Mama's name) or Irene (my Great Aunt) as a middle name. If I picked a different middle name then Renee, then I wanted to use Lily in some way since "Susan" is Hebrew for Lily. Renee is French for "reborn."

So I finally decided that I liked Daddy's choice of "Alice" and I could call you Ali. Which meant that I wanted to use Renee for your middle name! Problem: No matter which last name we give you, then your initials would either be A.R.F. or A.R.G. I realized this on Monday and almost cried! So I had to find an option ... when I finally remembered while sitting at work, I typed "reborn" into every name finder I could get via Google. Most of them brought up the general spellings I was used to that were all derivatives of "René." Then it happened: I typed the meaning into a random name finder and it popped up! I thought, "Oh duh! Why didn't I think of that!" There "Wrenae" was sitting. The funny thing is that Wren was on my list of 80 names ... I just never equated Wren with Renee before! As soon as I saw Wrenae, I knew it was meant to be :) Daddy was happy because he loves the name Alice.

About your Name: Alice works so very well because nowadays it's not as common used as it used to be! In 2008 it ranked #326 on the list of popular names which means that if 1 million babies were born last year, only about 240 were named Alice. Alice is English and is a derivative of the French name Adelaide which means "Noble Kind." Wrenae is a derivative of Renee and means "Reborn." Here is the Wiki-link telling the roots and famous Alice's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_(given_name) Also, my Great Aunt Ally (Great Grandma Imler's sister) was actually Alice and she was as sweet as pie. She made Dilly Dip for every family gathering. So I don't mind you having her name at all! Daddy thought of name because of Alice Cullen from "Twilight." She was his favorite character in the books.

So on July 15th, 2009 - as you kicked away - you were named Alice Wrenae (probably) Foster.

If you were a boy, you would be David James Foster (21st generation David Foster). But, alas, this will be the name of your future baby brother!