Rooted in Love.

Awake to Truth.

Committed to Change.

I'm Marion Van Namen — coach, mama, and founder of White Awake Parenting.

I help white parents raising Black and Brown children show up with fierce love, deep awareness, and the courage to grow.

Because I’ve been there.

When I adopted my twins — two beautiful, brilliant Black babies — my world cracked open. I quickly realized that parenting across race wasn’t just about raising children in love. It was about raising myself, too.

I had to confront my whiteness.
My conditioning.
My assumptions.
My silence.

And I had to learn to see the world not just through my own eyes, but through theirs — eyes that would one day walk into stores, schools, and spaces where they’d be seen as a threat before they were seen as children.

There were days I felt completely alone.
Friends didn’t get it.
Therapists didn’t have answers.
Even professionals told me to “try harder” or “be more strict,” like I wasn’t already trying everything I knew.

The truth is, I wasn’t failing.
I was waking up.

And waking up is not for the faint of heart.

It’s a dismantling. A reckoning. A grief.
And also — a holy invitation.

I created White Awake Parenting to be the space I wish I had all those years ago — a space of belonging, honesty, reflection, and fierce love.

Raising Black and Brown children as a white parent cracked me open — in the best and hardest ways. It taught me that love alone isn’t enough. That parenting across race requires a deeper level of honesty, accountability, and courage. Over time, I found words for what I believe, what I fight for, and how I want to show up. I put them into a living declaration — something I return to again and again...

This is the heartbeat of everything I do.

I’m not here to be your savior or your guru. I’m here to walk beside you. To hold space for your realness. To reflect what you already know deep down:

That you can do hard things.
That your kids are worth it.
That you are worth it.
And that you are not alone.

Welcome home.

Whether you're just beginning to wake up or you’ve been walking this road for years, you don’t have to figure it all out on your own. Sometimes we need a space to be honest. Sometimes we just need someone to say, “Me too.”

That’s why I created a private Facebook support group just for white parents raising Black and Brown children — a place to share, listen, learn, and be reminded that you are not the only one.