What's in a name?

Before we knew our baby was a girl we had a list of both boy and girl names up on the computer. We would add and delete one or two every few weeks as we felt was necessary. However we knew that there were three names we were in love with--two for a girl and two for a boy. So when it came down to it, our list was pretty pointless. But it was still fun to think about!

I heard our little girls name on the winter Olympics in 2010. No lie. I was watching speed skating and the camera cut to the audience. It showed a little girl sitting in the stands with her mom. As soon as they said her name, I fell in love. I had never heard used as a first name before.

At that time J and I were almost two years into our marriage and kids were not on our radar for us. However, he loved the name too and we never forgot it.

After we found out we were pregnant, we shared some of our names with our parents. Little did we know our little girls name is a family name! How cool is that? Not only did we wait almost four years to use it but it is also in J's family. I'm pretty sure it was meant to be.

So what will we be naming our little girl? What is the name we waited so long to use?

Now let me explain the middle name, Aleis (pronounced like Elise but with a short a sound). Aleis was my middle name. After we got married my maiden name became my middle name and I dropped my middle name. My dad didn't have any boys, so to me that was important. However, loosing Aleis was sad as well because I was named after my aunt Aleisha, who passed away. I feel extremely thankful to be able to have a little girl to carry on the middle name. And it means even more to be that I got to share with my aunt, before she died, the name we planned on using.

As soon as the technician said girl we had no doubts what we name would be. We are so in love with our girl already and just know her name will be perfect!