I was tagged!

Maureen tagged me in the name game to tell the story of how my kids got their names. She also wanted to know if Addy was already named when we got her. So here is the story of my kids names and let me tell you, it's not near as interesting as many others!

Jarika (rhymes with Erica) Rayeann- Jarika was Shelby for MONTHS in utero. Steel Magnolias was my favorite movie at the time! My brother got a new dog a couple of months before I was due and my mom hated the name Shelby and convinced him to name his dog Shelby! Jarika was a fluke actually! I was working in a nursery at the time and there were two little girls that were cousins and their names were Erica and Jessica. I was trying to get their attention and I accidentally said Jerica and I knew that was her name! We ended up spelling it with an A instead of an E which we have totally regretted, but people in her biological dad's family wanted to call her Jeri. I don't know of any Erica's called Eri but that's besides the point. My poor girl is called Jah Reeka all of the time! Rayeann came from combining her bio dad's middle name of Raymond and my middle name of Ann. I wanted to call her Rayeann for awhile but that didn't go over so well. Jarika fits her to a tee though!

Cooper William- You are going to laugh at this one. Cooper was named after the hot doctor on Melrose Place! My friend, Stacy, was the one that gave me the idea because I had NO CLUE what I would call a boy! William came from my Dad's dad, William Frank! The most amazing cool thing about Cooper's name is this: My birth-name (yes I was adopted) was Edie (yikes) Ann COOPER!!! I did not know that until he was 4 months old and my mom spilled the beans! My dad had known for a long time but didn't want to tell me because he was afraid I would change his name thinking I would think it would bother them that I named my son after my birth name. Crazy huh??

Avery Jacob- I knew when I found out that Avery was a boy that I wanted an older name. We threw around several before we decided: Blake Christopher, Christopher Tate, Justin Christopher and Jacob Cale. My favorite children's book is Charlotte's Web and that is where Avery came from. I've always loved the name Jacob so that's where it came from! :)

Addysen Grace Sonja- This is a touchy subject. When were put in contact about Addy her birth parents really wanted us to keep her name of Sonja (pronounced Sewn Ya) Jean. Scott and I had dreamed of our little girl with DS and her name was going to be Addy! I knew it would be easy to say and easy to learn to write. Sonja was going to be very difficult to say and very difficult for her to learn to write. So we gladly kept the name of Sonja, that is definitely part of who she is and I like how it sounds next to Heflin! Her middle name of Grace is simple, it is by God's grace that she came to our family!