After one week with a newborn in the house, Chuck commented, “I see you are wearing the same sweater again today.” I slowly looked up from where I was stirring my steaming cup of hot tea and replied, “Yes, I am. Is that a problem?” “No. No,” he clarified. “Just taking notice.”
It was next to my last checkup before Tyson would be delivered. “Please lay back, Mrs. Howard, so we can get another listen to the baby on the monitor,” the nurse stated. Eva and Charlotte were excited to hear the baby’s heartbeat again before delivery. As I lay back on the examination bed, the girls began to disagree at an octave that startled me. Looking at them both from a raised bed, I glared with sharp eyes and pursed lips. I felt the bed jerk up and down as the nurse flipped the switch, saying, “This bed seems to be stuck.” My eyes widened. Charlotte and Eva continued to fire back and forth at one another, cautiously, as if thinking that made the situation better. Without hesitation, I barked, “When I get off this merry-go-round, girls, are we ever going to have an understanding!”
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December 27th became the scheduled delivery date for Charles Tyson. I was a tad disheartened by this announcement since I had already ordered sweatshirts that read, “I Will Be Home For Christmas.” December 27th meant he would not be home for Christmas.
Eva sat down beside me on my bed before going to sleep one evening and very seriously asked me if she could be the first to hold Tyson when he was born. I smiled and pulled her close. “Well, actually, there is a rule for new babies. They must be placed in their mother’s arms right away,” I said. “Why?” She asked. “Because the minute a new baby hears his mother’s heartbeat, he stops crying,” I explained.
She wondered if the doctors placed her in my arms like that. I assured her they did. “I could hear you crying from across the operating room,” I told her. “The nurses were taking longer than the doctor liked, and I heard her say, ‘Let’s get that baby in her mother’s arms right away, please.’ Immediately when they placed you in my arms, you were quiet, as if every fear had been hushed.” She contemplated and asked, “Did Charlotte stop crying when you held her?” “Immediately,” I confirmed. “And Tyson will do the same. It’s something the Lord made.”
“Mom, do you think Tyson will know Charlotte and me?” My heart melted as I saw the care and concern in her eyes. Her love for Charlotte was unquestionable, and now, it overflowed for a baby boy she had not even met. “He knows every sound you girls make. He will love you both instantly,” I declared.
Charles Tyson Howard was born unexpectedly on December 10th, 2023. The door slowly opened, and two little girls came parading into the room carrying a balloon, flowers, and a crocheted green baby blanket. Sitting side by side, little Tyson was placed into Eva’s arms while Charlotte kissed his head.
Seeing him wrapped in the baby blanket I had once placed on a shelf as wishful thinking overwhelmed my heart as I saw God’s mighty hand from the prayers of a seven-year-old little girl. There they sat; Three miracles that astoundingly grace my life. Each one with their own story to tell.
Relaying Tyson’s story to a friend of mine she beamed as I shared how God covered the both of us during his delivery. Before we parted ways she made the statement, “If I had it to do all over again, I would be the mother I knew how to be – leaving the ‘How To’ books aside. And I would spend a lot more time holding them close.” I took her words to heart as we stood there.
Before Tyson was born, I waited for my glucose screening results with Charlotte at a medical clinic. There was an older woman who sat down next to us. She smiled at Charlotte’s playfulness and asked how old she was. I told her, “Two years old.” Then, as if whisked away in memory, her eyes began to dance as she said, “Enjoy your life. I am ninety years old and can truthfully say it has been a good life.”
My love for my family has not waned or weakened with an added child; it has only grown. How can time slip, and To-do lists lengthen, yet love only grows? It must be – Something the Lord made.
So, we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
1 John 4:16
P.S. Our “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” T-shirts were worn after all – wink.
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