4 Gens of Jens

Ok-so I'm sure many people have wondered about Seren's name. First, how to pronounce it. Its pronounced like the name Erin but with an "S" in the front. Its definitely a confusing one as far as pronunciation, and, we know its unusual, but, we like it. Secondly, where did we get it? We actually picked the name for our future baby girl on my 30th birthday. Lance surprised me for that birthday with a visit to one of my BFF's who lives in NYC. While there, Lance and I saw the name Seren. We thought it was a cool name but we weren't really sure it was a "real" name. Later, I checked online and found the name was a was a Welsh name translating to "star". We also ended up meeting a girl named Seren a few weeks later (She worked at our vet and we met her when we were picking the dogs up). All of those factors made both Lance and I know there would be a Seren. We didn't know how she would end up with us, or when it would be, but we knew there would definitely be a Seren Windley.

Another check in the plus column for the name Seren was that it was just close enough to the name Susan which was both my mother's and my (completely superfluous) first name. My mom was named Susan after one of her grandmothers. Seren was close enough to Susan for a family tie-in without being the same.

As for Virginia-at a random point in my life someone pointed out that every female on my mom's side of the family is named a "Gen/Jen" name. My grandmother is Genevieve, my mother Jeanette, and then me, Jennifer. Further, my mother's other grandmother was named Virginia. Put that coincidence together with fact that Lance and I are both from Virginia and really there was no question whatsoever of what our baby girl would be named!

My use of the phase"Only God Count's the Stars" is a complete coincidence and a phrase I found from someone else's blog when I was researching high-risk pregnancies. I totally stole it from another mother because it fit so perfectly for Seren. I had planned on painting that phrase above her bed. I still may be able to tackle that project. Right now I use it to tell people her story.

So that's the history of Seren's name and part of what led us to this blog. With all that history, the fact that we were not only able to bring the four females of four generations together but that those four females are all named after each other was a HUGE deal. When my grandmother came to Raleigh , we were able to take this picture. It is something that means a great deal to us. So there it is-the four generations of "Jen's".