Name Change

So... how do you choose a name for your child?  Especially your first child... where do you start?  Well, we started in Hawaii... on the beautiful island of Maui.  Walking back from Front St. in Lahaina one afternoon, we came upon the word maile.  It stuck with us and we soon discovered it was the name given to a fragrant vine found on the islands.  It sounded so sweet and wonderful we decided it would be the perfect name for our daughter.

Then Miley Cyrus shot into super stardom.  While the spelling is different, the sound is the same.  The name lost some of it's magic, but we didn't want to lose that special moment when we named our daughter on Maui.  We moved malie (or miley) to her middle name.

Now we needed a first name.  Once again... where do you start?  We came up with many beautiful names, but most were already given to the daughters of relatives and friends.  Then, out of the blue, we came up with Alaina over a sumptuous chicken burrito and shrimp taco at La Mina Cafe.  A quick gaze into each others eyes confirmed that we had a winner... Alaina Miley Pruitt.

That was fine... until match day.  After more than five years, we finally arrived at the day we could never imagine.  We saw the first pictures of our daughter and learned of her name.:  Lian Yin Ye.  It took awhile, but after a few days, we realized that Miley was way off base.  While the afternoon on Maui still evokes wonderful memories, the name was no longer magical.  We felt the need to acknowledge her Chinese ancestry and beauty.  As such, from this day forward, our daughter will be known as Aliana Lian Pruitt.

Sometimes... even the best recipes need to simmer a bit before they're done... Alaina Lian...