Introducing BY NAME, our daughter...

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alice Marie Hua . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


Yes, I am well aware that this is the third or fourth time I have posted these pictures somewhere on this blog, but they are my favorites and I just honestly cannot help it!! After several months of toiling over the name of "baby sissy", we have finally decided on Alice....sweet Alice. This has been a long and tedious process...for my very closest friends, no one knows more than you do!! Once we saw her sweet smile it helped to narrow our list down to 3 names....then, over time, through my 'rigorous naming process', we have come to Alice!

Why Alice, you say? Well, it is honestly a name I have liked for a long time and when we first started the process, it was my favorite....there are several other names that I am sad to say goodbye to, but I do believe that it is "the one"...once we started looking through our families for a name, I realized that it was Charles' great-great grandmother's name, so that made us like it more. As far as I can tell, it means 'truth' (or noble)....As for Marie, that is simply after me...I am Jennifer Marie...so that is easy enough...since all of our chldren have family names, we knew Marie would at least be part of her name...now, moving on to Hua...we wanted to keep part of her Chinese name because her life will not begin when she comes home with us, it has already begun and so, to honor who she is and where she has been, we are keeping Hua....it is pronounced "Wha", like you are saying what without the T...a breathy wh sound...NOT wah, with a W sound...hopefully that makes sense...from researching the characters that make up her name, I believe it means 'birch tree'....Chinese culture is very full of nature-flowers, trees, etc. Her nannies say that they call her 'A Hua' or 'Hua Hua' so, we will definitely have a time of transitioning between the two. We are also unsure if we will combine two of the names or not, to make a total of 3 names instead of 4...that is really bothering me and I haven't quite figured it out yet...

but, figured I better go ahead and announce what we are calling her because if we don't, my sweet Lucy will...and has!! At VBS, one of her teachers, Heather, came up to me and said that she had raised her hand when asked who had a sister and she said her name was Alice...anyway, we hadn't chosen between our final 2 at that point and were strongly leaning toward Alice, but she prompted us to get on with it!! haha....she has been praying for Alice Marie (Alice Aree, it sounds like), by name for several weeks now anyway...you have got to love kids!! During a recent poll in our household, 5 out of 5 said 'Alice', so Alice it is!!!

* * *My sweet, angelic, beautiful and beloved daughter, Alice,
Mommy and Daddy love you with a love that you cannot understand right now! We dream of hugging, kissing and tickling you and can't wait show you what you have been missing for the past 2 years. You have a sister that wants to tell you secrets, show you how to play with dolls and dress up like a princess, and 2 big brothers who want to give you piggy back rides, push you in the swing and tell you how beautiful you look in your dress. Most of all, I cannot wait to share with you about my Jesus....only a few more months and we will get to be together and then my heart will quit aching...we pray for your safety and that you are being taken care of...it is in God's hands and our trust is in him! We are coming to get you, Alice...
Love, Mommy* * *