we couldn’t have known the joy she would bring when she entered our lives on december 12 2017. but the Lord knew. He orchestrated it all. He laid her given names on our hearts long before we knew she would arrive.
adi (ornament or first born) – unbeknownst to me, dave kept a running list of baby names. but only one was an automatic “yes” when we ran down the list together. we’d watched a documentary a few years ago, The Look of Silence about an Indonesian optometrist of the same name. long story short the adi of this story confronts the men that murdered his brother during the 1965 communist raids while fitting them for glasses. it takes a person of great courage and strength to sit across from the people responsible for the death of their loved one(s) and choose to tend to their basic needs. the found meaning in semitic language is ornament or jewel and first born in sanskrit.
we pray adi will be a person willing to embrace tension and deal graciously with the people/systems/institutions that will inevitably hurt her at some point – intentional or otherwise. that she will know she is a prized jewel in His crown.
fun fact: we didn’t intend to find out gender so we were looking for unisex names. we’d landed on adi. but our ob/gyn while asking some routine questions mentioned we wouldn’t need to answer the one about circumcision because our baby wouldn’t need one. lol & smh!
sula (peace or little she bear) – we struggled to come up with a middle name we both liked. but since dave chose her first name, this one was up to me! it’s no secret that my favorite author is Toni Morrison. at a young age I was reading her novels and wrestling with prose well beyond my years. I was looking at a stack of her books on our shelf one day and it just stood out to me. i researched the name and though the book’s character was truly a troubled one, the meaning of the name sula is “peace”. a derivative of the Hebrew word “shalom”. sula is also short for Ursula which in a diminutive form of Latin means “little she bear”.
we pray our daughter will be a peacemaker in a troubled world. that her friendships and relationships will be defined by the presence of peace she brings. and that she will seek Shalom wherever she goes.
dawkins (beloved) – there was no choice in the matter here. but i’d never stopped to wonder what my married name meant. dawkins (Daw) is a pet form of the male given name david. in Hebrew, “david” means “beloved”. another Toni reference (kinds sorta?). but she is indeed beloved by all that meet her. i cannot count the times someone has commented on how much happiness and joy she brings others.
& yes dave’s name is basically david david. lol
you only turn one once!
so of course we had to celebrate!
[/spb_text_block] [spb_image image=”17405″ image_size=”full” frame=”noframe” caption_pos=”hover” remove_rounded=”yes” fullwidth=”no” overflow_mode=”none” link_target=”_self” lightbox=”no” intro_animation=”none” animation_delay=”200″ width=”1/3″ el_position=”first”][/spb_image] [spb_image image=”17407″ image_size=”full” frame=”noframe” caption_pos=”hover” remove_rounded=”yes” fullwidth=”no” overflow_mode=”none” link_target=”_self” lightbox=”no” intro_animation=”none” animation_delay=”200″ width=”1/3″][/spb_image] [spb_image image=”17411″ image_size=”full” frame=”noframe” caption_pos=”hover” remove_rounded=”yes” fullwidth=”no” overflow_mode=”none” link_target=”_self” lightbox=”no” intro_animation=”none” animation_delay=”200″ width=”1/3″ el_position=”last”][/spb_image] [spb_image image=”17408″ image_size=”full” frame=”noframe” caption_pos=”hover” remove_rounded=”yes” fullwidth=”no” overflow_mode=”none” link_target=”_self” lightbox=”no” intro_animation=”none” animation_delay=”200″ width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”][/spb_image] [spb_text_block animation=”none” animation_delay=”0″ simplified_controls=”yes” custom_css_percentage=”no” padding_vertical=”0″ padding_horizontal=”0″ margin_vertical=”0″ custom_css=”margin-top: 0px;margin-bottom: 0px;” border_size=”0″ border_styling_global=”default” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”][/spb_text_block] [spb_gallery gallery_id=”17419″ display_type=”masonry” columns=”3″ fullwidth=”no” gutters=”yes” image_size=”full” slider_transition=”slide” show_thumbs=”yes” autoplay=”yes” show_captions=”no” enable_lightbox=”yes” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”] [spb_text_block animation=”none” animation_delay=”0″ simplified_controls=”yes” custom_css_percentage=”no” padding_vertical=”0″ padding_horizontal=”0″ margin_vertical=”0″ custom_css=”margin-top: 0px;margin-bottom: 0px;” border_size=”0″ border_styling_global=”default” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]Theme: our little she bear had to have a bear theme, complete with mama +me tees and fuzzy bear ears.
Color(s): it’s hard to do a bear theme for a girl when most of the decor is either lumberjack or woodland themed. instead of going for a party kit, I scoured the internets and came up with a softer color palette of brown, blush, sage green, and rose gold metallics.
Activities: we kept it real real simple. our apartment building has a playroom that some of the parents created years ago. there are literally toys everywhere so all the kids got free rein in the playroom during the party. all we provided was some disinfectant and few hands to clean up after!
[/spb_text_block] [spb_gallery gallery_id=”17481″ display_type=”masonry” columns=”2″ fullwidth=”no” gutters=”yes” image_size=”full” slider_transition=”slide” show_thumbs=”yes” autoplay=”yes” show_captions=”no” enable_lightbox=”yes” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]Food/Beverage: we decided to host a morning party so that the adults in attendance could still have the rest of their Saturday and the parents could get the little ones down for naps before the meltdown! dave made breakfast potatoes and scrambled eggs. i made brioche french toast bake the night before to pop in the oven that morning! we set up a coffee and hot cocoa station for the adults. we poured chocolate milk and apple juice into honey bear bottles for the young and young at heart! we bought apple cider donuts, all the fixins’ for yogurt parfaits and take home trail mix.
Cake: our local whole foods supplied the smash cake. we ordered a 5in round naked vanilla cake with white chocolate drizzle which we topped with a baby bear figurine and mini bottle brush trees. because it was an early morning party and for a one year old we opted out on cake for everyone!
Favors: we did favors for the family instead of just the kiddos. in keeping with the theme, we repurposed clean baby food jars as honey jars adding a fabric topper and mini honey dippers.
Photos: the mister took all the photos while other friends/family facetime’d adi’s grandparents so they could be in on the festivities as well!
