Meet Averi Kate

We are thrilled to share the name we have chosen for our second little girl...Averi Kate!

This name is meaningful in a couple of ways. Claire Alyse was named largely after my side of the family - Claire was my middle name, and came from my grandmother on my mom's side. Alyse came from my sister's middle name, Alesa, and that name was formed when Jeni was born to reflect both my dad and brother's middle name ("Al" from Alan) and my mom's name ("esa" from Teresa). So there's a lot of Pickard heritage in Claire's name! Well, this time we were thrilled to go to Spencer's side of the family for our inspiration! Spencer's mom (affectionately known to us now as "Dobby") is named Kay, and her maiden name was Avera. So we went from Kay Avera to Averi Kate! We are so excited that Averi Kate will have such a sweet heritage from such a sweet, precious lady. Mrs. Kay is a wonderful example for our little girls to have in their lives. She is a fun-spirited, compassionate, and loving woman. We love her and are proud to name our second daughter after her!

The second reason we love the name that we have chosen is for the meaning itself. We want our kids to have names that reflect qualities that we pray over them. For example, "Claire Alyse" means "clear, bright, beautiful, and noble." Those are things that we pray for Claire - to have a clear understanding of the truth, to have the inner beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit that 1 Peter talks about, to have a noble character to choose right over wrong. Now we can pray Averi Kate's name over our second little girl. Averi means "wise". What better prayer can a parent have for their child than for wisdom? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and we pray that our sweet little girl will come to understand and glory in God from an early age, developing a wise heart from knowing Him. "Kate" means pure. How we long for purity for our daughters! Pure in heart, pure in mind, pure in motives, pure in action. We pray that Averi Kate will understand that purity comes from Christ, that He alone can wash the dirt from our hearts and make us pure, and that she will live a life that reflects the purity that Christ offers to give us by His grace.

Here is a picture of our sweet Averi Kate at 17 1/2 weeks...


And here she is from the outside at 20 weeks...


She is growing daily and becoming more and more active. I can see her kicks from the outside already if I am looking at the right moment. Claire loves her and calls her "A-B-K". Claire is very concerned that Averi Kate needs to put shoes on. I keep telling her that she doesn't need shoes right now because she is in Mommy's tummy, but when she comes out we can certainly put shoes on her. It doesn't matter, because every time Claire sees a little pair of Averi Kate's shoes she grabs them and comes running to me, yelling, "ABK ready?? ABK ready???" I'll say, "Sweetie, Averi Kate doesn't need shoes. Do you know why?" And she replies, "ABK mommy's tummy. Pop! Shoes." I believe she is saying, when Averi Kate pops out then she can wear shoes. I don't know where she got the idea that Averi Kate is going to "pop" out.