"Allen Girls, Woot woot!"

As I drove home from Oregon last night with two of the strongest Allen women I know, after leaving an extraordinarily courageous new Allen mama and her amazing Allen girl infant, I had some pretty emotional and strong thoughts on Allen women and then this led me to feel the need to share a secret.

I have a confession. I have had every intention when I said "YES!" to walk down the aisle with Dave B. to change my last name from Allen to Beecroft. No hyphen, no double-middle name, just, in the name of simplicity, from Allen to Beecroft. Here we are a wedding, two dogs, a one year old, a house and career later...I am still Emilie Rose Allen. My understanding is that the name change process takes time, organization and energy and I am just about ready to embark.

Dave has never pressed the issue knowing that my roots within the Allen tree are deep... I mean really deep. Growing up with extremely strong "Allen" women role models made me proud and very strong and VERY sentimental about belonging to this long line of women who were pioneers, farmers, teachers, healers, mothers, party-planners. All of which overcame odds and CREATED families and BUILT things from nothing. They were (are) magical women. I also have many Allen girl cousins who, when we get together, can pretty much conquer the world.

I am not sure if it is because it has been embarrassingly long since I got married, or if I wanted to properly mourn the loss of my last name of 30 years, or if it is the birth of the first Allen baby girl of this generation that makes it all of sudden alright, but, I AM READY to make the change. I have all my paperwork lined up and the time off from work to make it official and complete my transformation from A to B.

I am extremely comforted by the fact that I will be joining the ranks of Beecroft women such as my mother-in-law and sister-in-law (albeit former Beecroft) who show strikingly similar traits to those Allens who I hold near and dear.

O.K., Isla Monet Allen (all of 3 days old), I am counting on you hold up your end of this family tree. I am counting on you to steer this family as you grow and learn. I am counting on you to nurture and love this name as if you will have if for the rest of your life. I am counting on you to be magical. Who am I kidding. Of course you will, you are an Allen girl, woot, woot!

Signing off,

Emilie Rose Beecroft