Short Ode to Avery

You know we are naming McKenna "Avery McKenna," but do you know why?

Well, basically Tim and I have been blessed with really great sisters and sister-in-laws. We really are so lucky. No drama. Lots of love. No competition. Just greatness. We don't have favorites, but we have spent the most time with my sister, Krisite, and Tim's sister Avery. Quinn's full name is Kristie Quinn after my Kristie, and now we are keeping the pattern with Avery McKenna.

Avery really means everything to us. She embodies so many characteristics that I look for in friends and that I want my children to have. She is kind at the core, which is not something a lot of us are. We try. We know how to be kind. We really mean it sometimes. But most of us have been taught to be nice. Avery just came that way. Her love for others and her ability to put other people before herself is intense almost to a fault, but, hey, if you are going to have a fault (which you are) that is the one to have. A recipe for Angel.

And on top of all the things we love about her personality and her core soul, she also has tons of the same interests as me. We're both earthy ... but love Ikea. We love homemade granola ... and candy. We do Yoga, we work out for the mind's sake, we think deeply about things, we love Quinn. The list goes on.

Anyway, I might not be getting at the root of our passion for Avery Lynn Fellow, but it is there.

A passion.

In fact, I honestly believe that part of what threw off my neurotransmitters and caused the antepardum depression was that Avery had left and was so far away. It was literally too much for me to bare during this hard pregnancy.

I believe that the feeling is mutual between me, Tim AND Quinn. We all know that 2 year olds forget things, and I've been worried for some time that Quinn would forget what a constant and important force that Avery has been in her life. Well, yesterday Avery finally got iChat, and it was like she never left. After talking to her, building block towers for her, and kissing her good night, Quinn went to bed. She asked Tim to say her prayers for her, but the whole time she kept wishpering, "Ah, Avery. Ah Avery. Ah Avery." She says it in a tone like you would if you were making a list. "I'm grateful for my mommy and my daddy and my dog-dog." But last night it was all Avery.


So, hopefully our little McKenna will be a little piece of Avery in our home. We are honored to have a woman like Avery in our life to name our daughter after (and the same for Aunt Kristie.) That is our ode, and we are sticking to it.

We love and cherish you, Avery (although we never send B-day gifts), and McKenna, ... could you just get here? You're killing me, sweetheart.