Welcome James Bloom Dawang

It is with great joy we announce the arrival of our daughter,

James Bloom Dawang.

The intention of her name

From Leah:

Over and over, both in micro and macro contexts, the cosmological pattern of Transformation moves thorough,,,

Order to Disorder to Reorder

Connection to Disconnection to Reconnection

Life to Death to Resurrection

And as the world and everything in it moves through this pattern, Love — the coherence among all things — brings Earth and everything in it into alignment, over and over and over again. 

What's that have to do with her name? I'm getting there ;)

Her first name, James, is after my dad, James Van Someren who, among many qualities and characteristics worthy of replicating, has put on display the willingness and fortitude necessary to move through pain and disorder while allowing it to transform him. 

Hard things, challenges, pain and disorder are inevitable and as she takes on the name James, our intention is that she embodies the Truth that it's how you relate to the hard thing that can either keep you stuck or send you on a journey of transformation. 

Her middle name, Bloom (which she will primarily go by)

Bloom the verb

To produce flowers; be in flower

To come into or be in full beauty or health; flourish

(of fire, color, or light) become radiant and glowing

Through the allowance of letting pain transform, the outcome is to bloom into greater and greater expressions of Love. To be in full beauty. To Flourish. To become radiant and glowing. 

I foresee Bloom as a rebel for Life and Peace. A mover and shaker for change and transformation. My hope and intention is that she — and we — choose to allow pain to transform, moving through it into flourishing beauty. A Bloom of Light, radiant and glowing.

From Nathan:

When I think of the word “bloom,” I picture a vast meadow filled with wildflowers. I can hear streams running through the valley and buzzing bees working away in the field. I smell fresh air, coming showers, and floral waves. This picture swells up beauty, reverence, and wonder. I know we picked the right name for our girl because when I see her, those same feelings well up inside me. 

James Bloom is already a budding wildflower of beauty, reverence, and wonder. She will be someone who cannot be deterred or swayed by pain and disorder, and will cultivate the flowers of all that life throws at her. Her name isn’t just a prophecy of what Leah and I hope she embodies, it’s what we hope to become as individuals and a family.