Seventeen years ago today was Good Friday, and we got our very own little Easter surprise. Well, she wasn't so little. She was 3 weeks early but she weighed 9 pounds. She was chubby and beautiful, and we were thrilled. We had no idea what her name was though. I found out she was a girl VERY early. I had a friend do an ultrasound at 13 1/2 weeks, so I had plenty of time to get a name. But nope. No name.
When we first found out we were having a girl, Willard said he liked "Abigail". He rarely mentioned liking ANY name, so I thought we should probably use that. I asked him what middle name he liked because I couldn't think of anything that flowed well with Abigail. He said, "Let's just name her Abba Gail". Um, no. Scratch that.
Then we picked out Chandler, but that was when "Friends" was so popular and there was a male character named Chandler, so everytime I told someone the name, they'd say, "ohhh, I thought you were having a girl..." Sigh... scratch that.
So I struggled. For months, I struggled. The day she was born, I was in a panic on the way to the hospital. I gave Willard a list of about 10 names and told him to pick his favorite 3, and then I'd choose the winning name. He narrowed it down to Kendall, Payton, and Karsyn. Well, I guess you noticed her name isn't any of those.
Hunter and Haley Rae are named after Willard's side of the family, so I really wanted to name Karlie after my side. Momar's name is Suzanne, so that seemed like a good middle name. I had liked the name Karlie before I was pregnant with her, but a friend of my was pregnant and due a few weeks before me and she was planning to name hers Karlie. Well, her Karlie was actually a Noah and he was born 3 days before my Karlie.
My dad's name is Charles and my father-in-law's name was Charles, so Hunter had TWO Pap-paw's named the same thing. He tended to call my dad "Pap-Paw Charlie" except he had a speech problem and it came out "Pap-Paw Karlie". Wah-lah. When that finally clicked with me, I knew that had to be her name.
So, at 1:36 p.m., our sweet Karlie Suzanne was born. She was chubby and... wait, I already said she was chubby, didn't I... she was precious. She was my calm after the storm (the storm being Haley Rae, but that's another blog). She brought joy to so many people. She wasn't planned. I mean, I knew I wanted more kids, but Hunter and Haley were so little and I wanted to space them out. But looking back, she was right on time. My father-in-law passed away when Karlie was only 2 months old and my mother-in-law has told me time and time again how Karlie saved her.
Fast forward to present day, and she's still my sweet girl who has a heart as big as the world, especially for old people. She loves babies too, but she "awwwwws" just as loud when she sees a cute little old person.
She's not chubby now, but she's still beautiful. Happy Birthday, Karlie!
