Sekai Lokahi 

Brazil? Costa Rica? Colorado? 

These are the places we had seriously considered as possible birthplaces for our 1st child. After much discussion, we settled on Colorado as 
it would be uncomplicated and easy. Plus, we felt safe with our Denver tribe who would offer us assistance and guidance, as many of them had children of their own. 

But Jinju felt that, from the very beginning, dolphins should play a role in the birth journey because of their bond with humans. She felt strongly that being around their powerful field of consciousness, intelligence, and energy would have a profound effect on the life stirring within her. 

With no dolphins in land-locked Colorado, it was clear that we needed to go where swimming with them would be possible . . . . but where?

Having done much research, Jinju found a YouTube video titled "Naiya - Journey into Life" which chronicled Kim Nelli's decision to leave her Florida home to have her natural birth with dolphins. Jinju was elated to find out that the perfect place to connect with dolphins in the ocean is in a place called Kealakekua Bay . . . . on the big island of Hawai'i. 

We were going home. 

So, in January 2015, having conversed with Kim many times (she's now a very close friend of ours) we embarked on the most epic, soul flow birth journey, guided by dolphins, making Hawai'i the birth home of our 1st Soul Flow Baby. 

With Kim, here's Jinju's 1st swim with these magical beings, her dream achieved and forever captured : 

On March 6, 2015 . . . . Sekai Lokahi left the Ocean World of the womb to join us on earth. 

In February 2016, Kim published this video for Conscious Pregnancy Retreats: 

How the Birth unfolded . . . . 

(The following was written by Jinju on Day 5 in the hospital.) 

Day 3 of being new parents of this precious soul flow angel being . . . .  and my first chance of looking back at the last couple weeks of the most challenging and beautiful journey of my and Nova Dasalla's lives.

Broke down in tears today as life seems to finally have "paused" just enough to give me a chance to be fully present to this incredible birth journey. It's a lot to process and in the end, the most important thing that matters is there is a healthy baby boy in the picture and the biggest life lessons in surrender, trust, strength, and loving support from so many we cherish and take with us.

Since we made the announcement, we would like to give a few details of our birth story in which our natural, dolphin-guided, GENTLE water birth plan decided to incorporate an emergency C-section at a hospital. Labor started on Feb. 28th and after 5 days of labor with NO breaks from the rushes (contractions), mama and this baby hit the final wall. I was determined and yet, our bodies never lie. I got a clear message that, not only was I needing relief, but that baby was exhausted as well. It turned out I was experiencing what is called prodromal labor (while considered active labor, it goes on and on for days without an actual birth). As I approached day 5, the pain was becoming unbearable, and I hadn't slept in days. I had amazing, AMAZING support and it was clear . . . .  I had done everything I could do. In fact, we all had and then some! 

That's when we made the decision to go to the hospital. The morning after hospital arrival and some much needed pain relief, the hope was that my body would relax enough for my cervix to open up wider and Sekai would drop down further. While this was happening, heart rate monitors indicated baby Sekai was too weak for vaginal birth. And, because my body had also experienced so much labor fatigue, the only choice so that mother and child would both be safe was a C-section, or C-birth as we like to call it.

Clearly, it wasn't what we envisioned or wanted, but it was the way he wanted/had to come.

Things started moving fast . . . . there was a lot to process in a short amount of time . . . . but what struck me in the operating room was how it was ALL part of the divine plan and it was an incredibly beautiful thing unfolding.

You see, "SEKAI LOKAHI" means "To be ONE, to be in Harmony, Unity, with the Earth, with the World". 

Sekai means Earth, or the World in Japanese. Lokahi means unity and harmony in Hawaiian. (Kai means water in Hawaiian.)

As such, it's no surprise that Sekai's birth has been an incredible and extraordinary journey of BRINGING and BRIDGING so many into UNITY. Because of the nature of the labor, we are bonded for life with our gentle natural dolphin & whale birth team - Kimberly Nelli of Conscious Pregnancy Retreats who guided us to and with the dolphins, Mala our midwife, and Dorina and Maika, another pregnant couple who are sound healers and allowed their sound healing sanctuary to be our birth nest - these angels never once left our side! They cooked and cleaned for us, gave me powerful healing sessions, held us in sacred ceremony, and kept us in their hearts and prayers the whole time. We also laughed a lot!

So yes, we are unified through all this . . . . but what I didn't expect is the HEALING HARMONY that would be created between our natural birth team and the hospital birth team. I will never forget the LOVE and connection in the operating room . . . . and everyone dressed in blue, reminding me of the dolphins and how we humans were no different in that moment. There was no judgement of one another, only compassion. And in that bubble of this birth portal, there was healing and bridging of two - often very! - separate worlds committed to the same result: 

A safe, loving, and GENTLE birth!

For me this was healing as I have NOT previously experienced so much love and unity in a hospital setting.

AND, it's important that I did because it was a powerful reminder that it's a time on this planet where we ALL MUST COME TOGETHER. It's time to embrace all that we perceive as threatening or dark, to embrace all of it with love and compassion. I am humbled by the amazing care we have been given in this hospital and how respectful they have been of our beliefs around birth. I have also been told we are at a very special hospital, with one of the lowest C-section rates in the country . . . . but that's all it takes is ONE - one hospital, one individual, one experience - to open up more portals for this beautiful evolution to unfold. 

I am so grateful.

No, I didn't get to experience a natural "vaginal" birth, but we did experience EVERYTHING we dreamed! We LABORED WITH DOLPHINS AND WHALES!!! I labored IN the water outside under the full moon sky with candles lit all around . . . . I labored next to blazing fire . . . .  all the elements . . . . we labored so much, Nova and I wept tears of sorrow together for the first time ever . . . . I had never seen him cry before!

We had every experience of labor imaginable and then, in the end, while it was an emergency, it was still a CHOICE. We were empowered in our choice to have an emergency C-birth to bring Sekai safely into the world.

And, it's a good thing we are here as baby ended up needing an IV for low blood sugar, and mama had a 2nd surgery for an infection . . . . but we are healing quickly . . . . still recovering but we are in good, good, hands.

We cannot thank Sekai, and all our TEAMS, who have come together to support us, not only here in Hawaii, but back on the mainland . . . . so many loved ones who have held such powerful loving space and prayers for us.

We have never felt more LOVING SUPPORT in our entire lives . . . . thank you Sekai . . . . thank you SPIRIT . . . . thank you LIFE.

We are so grateful to Kim Nelli of Conscious Pregnancy Retreats for partnering with us in making this dream for a dolphin-guided, birth journey possible! Here is Jinju and Nova in her film about some of the couples like us whom she worked with in 2015 called "Imagine Our World Happy":  

And one year later . . . .