We’ve always felt a great sense of gravity while naming our girls. This time was no different and we are beyond thankful to have welcomed our healthy baby girl Blakely into this world.

Blakely is a family name that was Whitney’s great-grandmothers. And if you know one thing about Whitney’s family, it’s generations deep of strong, courageous, kind, loving and brave women. We want nothing more than for Blakely to know that the roots of her story stem from amazing women (from both our sides of our family really) who were, and are, leaders in our world—women who have overcome insurmountable odds and suffering, shattered glass ceilings, all while graciously pointing those around them towards a true north. We hope and believe that her story will be marked with a similar tenacity, love, grace and gumption.

Her middle name, Welles, means one who lives by the springs. First and foremost, we hope that she always finds herself deeply connected to those places in life that fill her soul with the beauty and hope and creativity and love of the divine—for it is here that we believe she will encounter the wild path of God.

And secondly, her middle name is a poetic and prophetic hope that we deeply hold as a family. You see for any good idea worth giving your life to, any movement or faith community to thrive in this world, it must not be created by the putting up of walls or fences, but simply by the creation of wells—sources of life, beauty, hope, generosity and love. So much of our world has been created by binaries of those who have been deemed in and those who are out—those who act in certain ways, say the right words and claim some particular set of beliefs. But this is not where love is found. Love is always welcoming, always inclusive, never judgmental or selective, but boundless in its reach and gracious to all who come and drink. Desperately, our world is indeed thirsty for a new way—a way full of wells and not walls.

So to our Blakely Welles, may you know that you come from a beautiful lineage of strong and courageous women—and may their stories inspire you to live deeply into your own as a leader and lover of people. And as you charge forward bravely into the world—may you remain relentlessly connected to springs of life that deepen your spiritual journey, that you might become a well to the world around you, always welcoming, giving, loving and inviting anyone from anywhere to encounter the beauty that is you, Blakely Welles Harms.

You are loved, you are loved, you are loved.