Initial 'portrait' shot of the new baby!

Ngozi(chukwu.nyere) means the blessing that God (or heaven/celestial, by my interpretation) gave.  My name (Chimezie) is an Igbo invokation for "(May) God resolve".  My interpretation substitutes the 'abstract' notion of the celestial for the word God.  My name was an invokation by my father to resolve things and after everything that has transpired, Ngozi is the gift or blessing that may bring about this resolution.  My dad prefers to call her Chioma.  It means 'good god.'  Again, substituting the idea of the celetrial (as a stark contrast to phenomena of the 'terrestrial' ) for the Islamic/Judeo-Christian notion of God/god, you have the idea of a benevolent circumstance or fate.  

Kwenu.com has a nice volume of decent translations of Igbo names.  In fact, it also has a nice overview of the concept of "Chi" in Igbo mythology.  Ironically, this concept as a strong correlation with my understanding of how the celestial interacts with the terrestrial, the rule of natural law, and how it relates to myself and humans in general.  The chinese word "Chi" has similar connotation:

the life-process or “flow” of energy that sustains living beings are found in many belief systems, especially in Asia.

Igbo mythology and ancient Indo-Chinese spiritual philosophy have much in common, so I guess in the end it is not so odd that I have come to find myself practicing Indo-Chinese spiritual philosophy as a way to understand the crazy world that I live in.  Their themes appeal to me in the same long-lasting way that the meanings invoked by the names of my children appeal to me.

I have a flickr album set of our (Roschella and I) favorite pictures of her