The Miracle of Laud

The Miracle of Laud: A beautiful birth story

*Author Note* Wow, I didn’t realize I have not posted all summer!  To say this summer has been busy is a severe understatement; this summer has been a crazy roller coaster jam-packed with life craziness.  Hopefully, this happy little story of a new miracle will make you smile! *

August 7, 2023

The Miracle of Laud

There was a day Louis and I took off of work and decided to celebrate our anniversary.  As I was reserving tickets for our gym’s Parent’s Night Out for my kiddos who weren’t working it, my boss laughed and said, something to the effect of “no more babies!”  Louis wanted to try for a boy and I was not against it! (I love being pregnant!)

Almost two months later we took the last opportunity to let all the kiddos know in person (Becky was home from college).  Our teenagers had various hilarious reactions we should have filmed (ranging from “ya’ll are crazy” to a slamming door to “are you kidding?”).  Jillian was super excited.  Lucas started cleaning a spot in his room for the baby; which Louis was convinced would be a boy since he used “Dr Jack’s method” that worked with Lucas.  Thea asked a million questions and kept trying to hear the baby’s heartbeat and talk to the baby.  

My babies like to hang around and I love being pregnant.  This time around was so different.  I was measuring large, but there are lots of factors that impact fundus measurement so it is more just a guide to make sure the baby doesn’t stop growing.  I’m forty and my last pregnancy to term was four years prior.  Even though, yes, I’m in what I consider really good shape, my body has been stretched out and back seven times.  I actually wore maternity clothes a friend gave me this time like normal!  I actually looked like I was pregnant from about 5 months on, a real first for me.  I loved that!

We went to the team banquet, it was the first one Christina got to come to, and the girls teased me saying I didn’t have any formal clothes… I surprised them with what I considered the cutest maternity dress ever (gift from the same friend – they just hadn’t seen it yet).  It felt so cool to show off the baby.  Friends who had seen me pregnant before asked if I was sure on the date or if there were two in there.  (Louis loved this, the baby inside was doing some movements that I still can’t explain, and secretly, I would have loved twins.

My “official” date from LMP would have been August 28, 40 weeks from the baby’s start would have been September 4th.  I just told people September or early October.  I honestly thought early-to-mid-September because most of my babies were about 42 weeks old when they came; I usually carried closer to 10 months.   

July 31st started braxton-hicks contractions, the baby was still sitting up high right under my ribs and had not yet “dropped”.  That was spot on for me because braxton-hicks contractions usually come 4 to 6 weeks (even 8 weeks, in two instances) before the baby comes.  My babies tend to drop 3 or 4 weeks before.  The baby-mapping information, which is super cool to research if you have time and want to be amazed, was telling me the baby was up to one side.  My milk usually starts leaking a week or so before the birth too and there was no sign of that yet,  

We went to the beach in the late evening of August 2nd.  It was beautiful!  I always feel like praising God for everything when I watch the majesty of the ocean, hear the laughter and joy of my children enjoying the water, and slow down to consider how honored I am to be so blessed.  The others did gymnastics drill competitions in the soft sand (handstand holds, perfect Ts, candlestick holds, etc.) while Becky and Thea made a sandcastle from dripping sand – absolutely breathtaking.  

(beach shenanigans and laughter)

On the way home, it felt like the baby shifted to sit sideways.  I mentioned that I would like the baby to drop soon so sitting in a car wasn’t so uncomfortable.  Christina laughed.  The sing-along music at the top of their lungs and windows open made it so no one else heard.  

I woke up on August 3rd a little after midnight.  I thought my body was doing Braxton-Hicks contractions; it had been off and on since July 31st.  These stretch-and-prepare contractions came and went in tiny spurts and historically clusters of three to ten stretches that disappear after I move around, shower, or stretch was “normal” for my previous births.  I remembered seeing a facebook post about one of my best friends getting home from the hospital with her son; she often didn’t have night nursing and I hadn’t meshed schedules with her in a very long time.  I texted to see if she was awake and able to chat.  God knew I needed to hear her voice and we chatted for a couple of hours.  Just after 4:15am, what I thought was Braxton-Hicks contractions about midnight (I had showered and they went away completely), became an intense contraction that came in a wave.  I paused talking to breathe through that one and mentioned that it was different.  I said, “this is early,” or something to that effect and told Hannah I was going to wake Louis & call Misti.  As I stood up – or tried to – another contraction came in which the baby shifted from sideways inside me to “in position” and dropped all in the same intense contraction!  I’ve never felt that before! 

I made it from by the couch to the just inside the bathroom (didn’t get to my bedroom to get Louis) and another seriously intense contraction came.  Someone had left two of the deep soft towels laid out flat on the floor on top of the bath rug (a nice, soft place to pause where clean up would be easy). I heard Christina coming out of the barracks and she asked, “mom, are you dead?” I was in full relax through the contraction mode and answered “I’m fine” with a tiny voice she knew meant baby was coming. She woke Louis and went to get mom.  Louis came in the bathroom and rubbed my back, “this is coming fast” my bones were doing the separate-thing they do at transition (feels like my spine is coming apart). With the next contraction, my water broke.  I texted “my water just broke” and called.  Misti ended up being on speakerphone with us the whole birth.  I remember wanting to double check my “official” LMP due date that was in my phone memo with all the other baby measurements for this pregnancy (my phone appears to be my notebook for everything to keep me straight on facts – I sometimes call it “my memory” because I upgraded from a purse-calendar-planner to that).  I couldn’t focus on anything but listening to my body because I didn’t want to move too fast; my brain kept trying to slow my body down – nope, body wasn’t listening.  

One more contraction at total relax and the next one came with a burning urge to push.  I felt the baby moving to crown and said something, likely incoherent at this point, about the baby crowning.  I heard what I thought was Louis repeating what I thought I said.  I heard Misti say something too, but I was focused on listening to my body and slowly (in my head it felt slow, but time is so relative when you are in concentration on something – it was likely fast) pictured what the muscles in my body were doing and focused on working with them instead of fighting against them.  I remember praying and feeling God say, “listen” like a soft ocean breeze in my ear.  He made my body to do exactly what it was doing now.  I relaxed – rested – in my trust of Him.  

Louis told me the baby crowned and to push, I didn’t feel a contraction but refused to panic, I waited and breathed deep to calm and listen; another contraction came and pushed our little one out.  There was a cry followed by a choking sound.  As I looked to see the baby in Louis’ hands, the baby’s fingers then arms and toes then legs started to turn from a bright pink-red to blue!  The baby had come out with the umbilical cord wrapped and Louis unwrapped it. 

Time here slowed for us.  It felt like an eternity. 

“What happened?” Misti seemed to be able to see everything though she was just on the phone, we said he was turning blue like he choked, she said to suction his mouth.  I remembered that from Kimberly’s birth – her cord was really short and the midwife had stopped me from pushing to unwrap her cord, then used a long tube to suction out her mouth – she had been blue.  I couldn’t see using a nose suction thingy, it was too short.  I had heard Louis say he was a boy as he first cried.  Now my mind said “he” instead of “baby”.  “How do I do that?” I remember not panicking although the back of my mind was screaming at me “he’s blue!  Not breathing! He’s going to die!”  Misti said to hold his nose and suction him with my mouth.  It was like she could see that I wasn’t pulling strong enough, I remember, “no, pull like you’re sucking a milkshake through a straw,” I prayed and sucked up a ton of mucus which I just spit on the floor.  “Blow into him, firm but gentle,” I heard.  I blew a breath as I prayed again.  He shuddered and breathed in and cried out!  I cried.  

Christina had called 911 when he started turning blue.  He’d been not breathing.  It had really been less than a minute between choking sound and his next full cry.  It had felt like ten minutes.  It had felt like eternity.  Everything had happened so fast but in my mind it had happened in slow motion.  

Fire rescue came in.  My mom said one guy heard the baby crying and whispered, “thank God,” as he entered.  Misti told us to rub him so we had been rubbing on Laud all over to get the circulation back.  We’d recently watched Thea’s “pongo dog” aka “101 Dalmations” and one of the kids mentioned, “just like the puppy.”  I didn’t know which of the girls were awake just yet.  I did suddenly realize when there were strangers in my house that I was naked and bloody and there was a giant mess in the bathroom – I made a mental note to throw out the towels on top of the rug and I didn’t care if they were the big nice ones or not.  I had been focused on Baby Laud.  Louis covered my shoulders with a big towel.  The Fire Rescue guy looks at the cord, which was wrapped around my leg, the placenta hadn’t delivered yet, and Laud is at my chest height being rubbed.  He said, “wow, that cord is long.”  They waited a moment for the pulsing to stop so all the blood from the cord went into Laud.  Cord was cut and they did some stuff checking out Laud.  I told them, “we called for him, not me,” because “blue and not breathing is scary” and I told them what I needed to do for me (deliver placenta, get blood off to see if I am actively bleeding, etc). The guy agreed and said the baby was good asked if he’d urinated. Yes, with his first big cry after I suctioned him, he’d peed all over, which honestly had made us laugh. Since Louis and the rescue people had Laud, I washed to get most of the blood off and stimulate my body to contract again and get the placenta out.  Misti was still on the phone and had all the times and such.  Someone (likely Louis, Mom, and Christina) cleaned up the mess on the floor (I hoped the towels just got tossed).

One of the rescue guys said they couldn’t leave until they made sure baby and I were good – for me, that meant delivering the placenta and not actively bleeding. Placenta delivered along with huge blood clots. Louis goes, “I know what to look for.” He says the placenta is a fascinating organ and knows what the whole one looks like. The placenta was whole. I’ve seen them too, but usually I’m a little occupied with the baby and only once do I remember examining one because I was curious. No active bleeding. Sweet. Just that drainage, which honestly appeared too light to me.

All Laud’s vitals were good!  His little fingers and toes were pink by the time the placenta delivered and I’d cleaned up a little so I felt ready for the baby.  They checked my blood pressure, which was “a bit low” so I had to explain that my blood pressure is always low, stress makes it “normal.”  They were so nice and it was amazing how quickly they arrived.  Everything was good so we opted to stay home because I never sleep in hospitals anyway.  Laud was perfect!  

From the “my water just broke” text at 4:36 to when he was born at 4:43 was literally 7 minutes.  I am still in complete awe of how quickly everything went. Rescue guys and lady left somewhere before 6am (that was when I texted someone, Misti or Hannah likely)

Our little Laud Arik “stole” Christina’s title of “lightest” at his new 6lbs 4oz.  He tied Kimberly for the shortest at 19 inches.  His name means “Praise” and “Lion of God” in Hebrew.  The teenagers pointed out he is a Leo.  He is such an amazing blessing!  The girls of course, are vying for who gets to hold him.  Lucas commented, “you have two brothers, he’s my only brother.” (Although that is literally true, it’s also a little funny that he decided that was why he should be able to hold him more than the girls.)  

Our littlest love is here!

He’s ready to be loved on and spoiled by big sisters, his big brother (who has been his shadow since birth), family, and friends.  We’re so awed and blessed and honored to have another little “arrow” to raise up!  Thank you, Jesus for friends, family, quick rescue workers (even though he was all okay when they got here, it was provision in case he wasn’t – not breathing is scary to watch)! Thank you, Jesus, for Your perfect timing!  Becky gets two & a half weeks with him before she’s gone until November, Christina gets a week & a half before her final senior semester craziness, I only missed the last two days of camp at gym and will be ready for driving with the start of school, my mom travels over summer and was here for just a four-day stay in between visits & got to be here… I have always teased that babies don’t read calendars… and my cumulative experiences with births keeps showing me every time is different and God has all of it in His hands!

Thank you, Jesus, for the miracle of love and life!  Thank you, Jesus, for the miracle of Laud!

*Pictures because my girls say I can’t write about him without sharing pictures! (photo credit to Grandma Tina, Christina, Becky, and Kimberly because I was way too busy to think of pictures!)  

(Stretching all over!)

Thank you for reading!

Type at you later!

~Nancy Tart

Culture: The Importance of Family

May 10, 2020

Culture: The Importance of Family

Imagine you are raised a young woman, married a few years with two children. Your family is part of a group sojourning in a land with people hostile to you. In your family’s culture, women are to obey their fathers and later husbands. You and your husband love God. You honor His law. Then you hear at the well that the midwives are commanded by the king to destroy all male babies of your people as the baby is being born. But you hear how two of your midwife friends fear God over the king and so being, do not obey him. Yet you are scared for your people.

You find yourself encouraging and helping; but the fear is everywhere. Women are praying their children are girls so they are not required to kill them.

You find yourself pregnant. Part of your heart wrestles the fear – should you pray this child is a girl? Your husband smiles and whispers, “we fear God, the child is a gift.” But you hope that stays true even after the child is born. Your daughter and son see the fear in the people and look to you for comfort. They look for assurance that you live by the faith you speak of; do you fear for your baby or trust in God? You smile and tell them, “God has given us this child, God will keep the child safe.”

But you wonder. Death and affliction are around you. The rulers hate your people. Many of your friends have faced death and the shroud of death for defying the king expands to all in their household – or so the stories say. At least twice you have known it was truth. Would you risk the lives of your husband, son, and daughter for the baby if it is a boy? Which is safer? But the rumblings of the little person growing inside you remind you as you wrap your arms around your swelling belly that this child is worth the risk. God’s gifts are always worth the risk.

When the day comes and you labour with your own instead of calling the midwives, you birth the beautiful child whose lovely eyes catch away your breath as you stare and study him. Him. Yes, your daughter says “I have a baby brother!” and your husband hugs you and the newborn tight. Your son glances up at you to look in your eyes. You are not afraid. You will risk everything for this love. “We will keep him hidden.” Your husband smiles. Your son and daughter relax in their trust of you as they see you trust in God.

But you know there will come a time when your tiny illegal child will be too loud. Someone will know, someone will tell, and there must be a way.

You are learned as your family teaches even your daughters to read and think; you know that your afflictors bow before idols. One is the god of the river, Hapi, and you know that women wishing to be fertile yet cursed with barren wombs go and bathe at one place. Also, the wealthy do not nurse their own offspring, instead they hire a nurse for the child. You begin to watch. Daily you go with your daughter in tow under the guise of fetching water and food yet along the way you see the women who come to the water. They all wish for children; the longing in their hearts and souls are deep. Their sorrow causes tears to rise in your eyes. It also waters the plan you have devised.

Your husband does not agree quickly, for him it is a horrid idea to turn his child, his beautiful gift from God, over to some heathen woman regardless of whether it may save the child’s life. How can you think of killing our son’s soul in this way? But it is your daughter who says, “but Father, what if they chose Mother as his nurse?” and this you both continue to discuss and pray about.

The time comes when he is too big to hide anymore. His tender hunger cries have turned into the periodic wails of teething, striking without warning and so loud you fear his voice will call soldiers from every corner of the globe. Now, you set him adrift in the basket of woven reeds and pitch you have carefully crafted, and carefully place it among the reeds to drift into the part of the river where the barren women come to bathe. Your daughter stays as a guard. You leave to pray.

This is the sorrow, trust, and faith of Jocebed, wife of Amram and mother to Aaron, Miriam, and Moses. She placed her trust in God and brought an illegal child into the world, hiding him from those who would kill him. She watched, waited, and used the heathen culture of her people’s enemies against them.

We know the rest; the pharaoh’s daughter comes to bathe and finds Moses. He cries and she takes pity on him, knowing he was a Hebrew! A girl appears and says, “may I fetch you a nurse to suck your baby?” and this educated woman of Egypt says, “yes.” Do you think she didn’t know this nurse would be the child’s mother? Wow. Just to imagine these three women and the things they chose to do… Jocebed in faith and love, Miriam in obedience, faith, and love, and Pharaoh’s daughter in love and pity of a child who she took into her home in defiance of her father’s order.

Just some thoughts.

I know that most of us spend today thinking about our mothers. Not to say I don’t! But I love to step into the shoes of those before. I love to try to see their struggles – how powerful Jocabed’s faith! Not only to give birth and refuse to destroy her boy, but to give that little gift in faith to another believing that God will allow her rather devious plan to work trusting her family can pass their faith on to this child in the short amount of time they will have him (while she nurses him).

Wow.

Think about the various challenges we mothers face at different points in history, through various cultures, and in various strata of existence. All of our stories are different, but the theme of faith, love, and hope permeate them all. We all want the best for our gifts and pray to effectively train them up in the little time we have them.

Give thanks for the mothers and grandmothers and motherly influences in your life.

Thank you, God, for mothers!

Thank you for Reading,

~Nancy Tart

The Story of Baby Thea

A birth story of our little angel (and a slideshow of proud siblings & family!)

February 22, 2019

The Story of Baby Thea

If you’ve been following my blog, you know I was growing my seventh little angel.

Today, I get to write the story of her arrival!

On February 19th, a beautiful Tuesday morning, my day started normally. During my 32 minute drive to work, the Baby started thinking there was not enough room and my body did the stretching contractions (Braxton-Hicks) that is very normal for me in the last month or two before birth. I didn’t think much of it, really. After my boss left for appointments, one of my office companions, Lily, a beautiful brown and white pittie belonging to my boss, started laying at my feet and wouldn’t let me go anywhere without her! This was a bit of a warning to me because Sheba (my Aussie mix) always does this to me when I’m in active labor. I left at one (normal time) to get to Christina and then my midwife appointment.

Christina had been babysitting, finished some errands at the college so she would be ready for the summer semester, caught the bus to 207 (the road I take into town), and was waiting for me. Along the way, my midwife texted to reschedule the appointment to Thursday and I laughed during my voice-text because I was very tired and that worked great for me. I added, “or when Baby is ready,” as a joke because my babies have all come on or after the due date. Everyone had been rooting for a February birth since the official “due date” was February 24th, and except for Lucas, my wee ones were between 9 and 13 days “overdue” so I usually ignored the due date and just gave a general month (in this case, I’d been saying March).

I got Christina, teased her about driving (she’s recently received her learner’s permit), and we headed home. Sheba was acting odd, I was starving; Louis had made lasagna Monday so I ate a huge plate and took a short nap.

When I got to gym with Becky (her class is on Tuesday, the others are all Wednesday), the contractions were still there, but, like I said, that is normal for me. It had been happening off and on already for about a week and a half, so I just went about work because they were easy to ignore. Some friends and I chatted about babies as I was leaving, and someone said, “you know about your body by now, right?” I laughed, “each is different, but I’m still thinking March.”

Wow, was I wrong.

As Becky texted Christina and Louis to tell them we were off & headed to pick up Christina at CAP, Becky said, “Mom, I can’t drive us home, but if the baby keeps contracting like that, maybe Christina can.”

We laughed. Part of the driving restrictions on a learner’s permit forbid night driving for the first few months; but we always teased Christina that she’d have to drive home in the dark if I was in labor.

Home, I was starved, but my belly felt full after four strawberries. I took a shower and crashed. I kept waking up every couple hours, but I’m a light sleeper so that’s also normal. Each time, though, I noticed contractions. I’d check my phone just to see what time it was. Midnight. 1:40. 2:30. 3:50. At almost 4, I realized I was sweating and I decided to wait for fifteen minutes (so the water softener cycle was finished) and take a shower. The next glance at my watch showed 4:19. I took a shower and the first contraction after the water hit was very strong. I felt movement inside me. “Wow, you sure you’re ready?” I asked. I was sure that was just a fluke and usually the warm water calms contractions down. When the next two made my legs feel like jelly, I got out of the shower and crawled back into bed. The phone said 4:35. I wasn’t about to wake anyone or call Misti for three oddly strong contractions.

I tried to sleep. I had about two hours before I had to get ready for work.

At somewhere before 6am, I tried getting ready for work. I had to stop and breathe through contractions that were easy to time and I felt the baby moving slowly down inside of me. I was about to wake Louis but ended up stretching through a contraction. We have a mind link, I think. Louis woke up as I was stretching. He goes into mega cleaning and question mode. This is his serious mode. He has been through it enough to know we were going to have a baby this morning – or at least today. He told me to call Misti, he woke the kids up to help clean (normally, we clean before bed, but they had been in a non-cleaning mood the previous night), and directed the house with efficiency. I was restless, so kept walking around in between. Christina and Becky didn’t want to get out of bed. I went into the barracks to find out why not.

“Mom! You can’t have the baby in here!” Christina shrieked, covering her head.

“So, get up please and help Daddy with cleaning. Y’all should have done that last night. Once you finish, you can go back to bed, but he’s really stressing about the house and people coming so please help.”

No answer. I could feel another contraction creeping up. “Okay, you have about 20 seconds before I get another contraction and…”

Christina bolted, “MOM! I’m up! I’ll help Dad! GET CONTRACTIONS OUT OF MY ROOM!”

Becky was up too. Kimberly was definitely awake. Mission accomplished. I went back to the kitchen table. My “leave” alarm reminded me to text or call my boss. 6am though, I figured I should just text – plus I didn’t want to talk to anyone at the moment.

Misti showed up (can’t remember if the house was clean, but based on the voices and giggling and a movie being on, I’d guess it was straightened). Mom was on the way, she told us she had to be at one of my brother’s promotions at 8am. The girls had turned on “The Two Towers” and as Louis walked by during the Uruk-hai production scene and he ordered, “Turn that off, you can see a real birth soon enough.” I can’t remember if the result was “Wild Kratts” or “Dumbo” but there was something far less messy on the tv a minute later. (I did hear one of the teenagers or preteens quip, “Mom will sound like an orc.” Louis and I laughed. We’re nerds.)

By 8:30, I was immune to the world. I heard Misti’s voice, smelled Louis (I was leaning on him), and faintly heard background voices. I was focused on this job.

8:42am and our little one came into the world, veiled. Misti took the bag off and the Baby screamed to test the limit of her lungs! (We didn’t know Baby was a “she” just yet!) Baby opened her eyes fully and stared up at me. Then she screamed to rattle the roof again. The dogs were barking. We discovered our Baby was Thea!

Welcome to our crazy world, Theadora Taliesyn Tart. You are loved and cherished!

Theadora (after her great-grandfather Melvin Theodore Pearson) means “gifted by God” and Taliesyn (feminine form of your grandfather’s favorite character from a Celtic legend) means, “one with the shining brow, one who sings wisdom.” And Daddy chose the nickname “Thea” because he likes it. (Your uncle texted that he’d call you “3T” – yes, Daddy searched for two “T” names we both liked!) I kept both names the same length, since that’s what we’ve done – all of the children’s names have the same number of letters in the first name and middle name. Theadora 8 letters, Taliesyn 8 letters – told you we are nerds.

Mom (Grandma Joanne in the pictures) came back with a shower of baby girl goodies! (And, yes, this is why she’s in such cute clothes once we managed to get them on her!)

Theadora, I pray you always feel the love of your family as you wiggle your way up to adulthood. I pray you feel the warmth and see the light of God’s love reflected in the faces of your sisters and brother, mother and father, aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins. We have accepted the honor of being your guides to lead you to Jesus, to raise you in love, and to give you room to find, develop, and follow the passion of life God has rooted within you. You are a daughter of God, a precious gift to us, and chosen to bring light through your smile.

Becky said I can’t post a baby story without her pictures! So here is a little slideshow:

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Lucas kept trying to “pet” and “kiss” Baby Thea

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Christina & Thea (oldest & youngest)

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Lucas said “you are my love, Baby Thea!”

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Grandma Joanne & Thea

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Christina and Becky are already vying for who gets the baby

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Kimberly and Thea

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Jillian and Thea

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Theadora Taliesyn Tart

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This is Christina’s favorite from Thea’s birthday

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Jaquline and Thea

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Becky and Thea

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Daddy and Thea

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Aunt Becca and Thea

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Thea and Mommy

Hope this brought you a smile!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Savor Life

We should savor life at every stage!

February 2, 2019

Savor Life

I’m a few weeks or so from giving birth to our seventh little miracle.

Lying in the bed (because of some biological oddities to hit just as this baby started, the cold that normally would take me two or three days to fight is taking a stretched-out time; I’m on day seven) Louis says, “if the afterbirth is harder each time, maybe we should stop with this one.”

I smiled, but since I was lying toward the wall, he couldn’t see.  “I’ve always treated each time as if it may be the last.”

“Really?” I guess this shocked him a little because I love being pregnant, I love the infant stage, I love the growing independence of the toddler stage, I love each and every step so far in this journey.   Although I’m fully prepared for God to say, “this is the last one” sometime, I’m also fully prepared to continue going through this amazing cycle of mothering a miracle.

Yes.

I guess it’s complicated.

See, about the time I was pregnant with Kimberly, I grew a great deal in my understanding of how to allow God to have full control in my entire life.  I thought I trusted Him with everything but realized that I was quietly hoping to have a multitude of children and not really okay with less – or even three.  But I asked myself, “What if God’s perfect number for you is three?”

I began to realize that God’s perfection was not limited nor driven by my wants.  (DUH!)

I decided early during that pregnancy (with Kimberly) that I would savor every second, every feeling, every hiccup, stretch, movement, and challenge that came along as if this were the last time I would carry life.

I already loved being pregnant.  I shared that love with my mother and Louis’ Grandma Honey (she told me once she would have been pregnant her entire life if God had allowed her!).

At that time, I had a shift of my mental state.  Instead of trying to always project perfection, I wanted to savor life with my family.  If this meant not fully finishing with a cleaning chore before we went somewhere, then okay.  If this meant taking a break to look at a cool flower while I’m supposed to be hanging clothes, okay.  If this meant letting someone else watch the kids so Louis and I could go out, then that was okay.  I realized I was trying to follow other peoples’ ideas of what my life should look like and had unconsciously adopted those ideas as “perfection” – and yes, perfection as it was in my brain was never truly achievable!

My stress level fell so much in those few months while I grew Kimberly in my belly and started a new “temp” job.  I may have looked busier, but I felt so liberated!

Even though what followed (from 5-weeks after Kimberly’s birth) was what I honestly believe was the most grueling, difficult 18 months of Louis & my married life, I was able to find a well of thankfulness to pull from when I felt so far down.  Without my new understanding of submitting totally to God’s plan, I would have probably allowed the horrid miscarriage to drag me into the jaws of depression.  I realized even as I cried in the stupid bulk-grocery-store bathroom, by myself, hundreds of miles from home, while I “passed” the fragments of what was once a life I felt and loved, that God had even this time in His hands.  He knew all the whys and I wasn’t to understand them; just to trust Him.

So, fast forward almost 12 years and  here I am lying with this little miracle kicking up a nice sensitive bruise under my right side.  Life in its cycle, totally unexpected, another prime example of God’s timing and perfect wisdom (Click here for that crazy amazing story!).  I’m rubbing on my belly because it makes the Baby move around and react to my touch – and I LOVE that.  I’m playing with this little one before he/she is born!

God has done so much, so many unexpected things that have lifted us up despite the weird, harsh, and unexpected challenges this past year.  God has taught me to savor all life – all stages and parts, from babies and pregnancy to friendships and siblings.  Take time for and savor everything.  There are miracles everywhere.  Yes, I’m okay if this is my last pregnancy and birth.  I’d long ago given all control to God.  I mean, if I trust Him with something so awesome as my salvation and eternal life, how can I not trust His wisdom in family size?

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Meet Swan, Tiger, and Grizzly

Here are Becky and Christina’s newest triplets – Swan, Tiger, and Grizzly! Cuddly balls of fur and cuteness!

January 24, 2019

Meet Swan, Tiger, and Grizzly!

Becky and Christina’s guinea pigs had three little piglets!  (Taylor, mom, is Christina’s whom we adopted, and Becky’s TobyMac was purchased with the store employee promising he was really a she… read here for that story!)

So about every six months or so, our little piggies pop out a couple of new piglets.  First was our Sweet Potato, who went to a lovely home near ours.  The last was another trio.  The girls take finding a home for their sweet babies a big responsibility!

Becky finds a “theme” for their names.  The first one was vegetable, the second one was desserts, and this one is animals.

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This is Swan.

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Tiger (so named for the white stripe)

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 And Grizzly (coloring played a role in this one’s name)

We don’t know the sex of these little piglets just yet because Becky thinks they are “too comfy” snuggling with Mommy and Daddy to “invade” and examine them.  Toby is such a devoted Daddy to the piglets.  He will even make a growling fussy noise if one of the girls opens the nursery roof when he’s bringing grass up to Taylor while she’s nursing the piglets. (They like fresh Spanish Needles better than even Timothy Hay!)

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But when the adults come down to take a baby break, the girls get to peek at the babies!  When it is cool, as it has been lately, we don’t take them out of their protection until they are better able to regulate their body temperature.  Baby Guinea Pigs are born fully furry, eyes open, scampering about, and almost independent. (They will nurse from mom for 3 to 6 weeks, but start eating fresh grass brought up by Daddy almost immediately!)

In the cycle of our little farm the younglings get to see birth, life, and death as it plays out in seasons on a smaller scale than in our own lives.  We are honored to see births and become responsible for the small life gifted to us (yes, even the frog egg cluster they saved from the drying pool and hatched them to “save them” from drying up).  We will keep one or two of these little angels as they become permanent members of our little tribe.  I love how tenderly the girls take care of their animal responsibilities – Lucas calls them “my animal friends.”

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

The Coldest Day

When you’ve worked almost two years to get a harvest and a deep freeze threatens; you save the navel oranges! Jaquline’s Birthday Story

January 4, 2019

The Coldest Day

This is story of the coldest day for us in winter 2009-2010:

It was the second winter in the farm house.  We loved that house because there were twelve citrus trees, a huge ancient fig tree, an Asian pear tree, tons of mulberry, pecan, and oak trees, an old neglected trio of muscadine grape vines on the arbor, and blackberry vines in thickets around the perimeter fence.

We had worked feeding and tending each of the trees for almost two years.  Most had given us hearty thanks in the form of yummy, sweet fruit.  Well, the pecans actually were eaten by the over abundant squirrel population and one of the orange trees was sour so when we wanted lemonade we actually just popped off six of those giant sour oranges and made orangeade instead.  It was light yellow in color and except for a slight orange flavor; the girls thought it was lemonade!

There were two tangerines, one pink grapefruit, three yellow grapefruit, one tangelo, two small orange, one lime, and one sour orange tree that had given us fruit after the first winter.  Since it had been a mild winter with no deep freezes, the fruit was sweet and had set on the trees over spring as we harvested it in perfectly manageable sets.

Only the navel orange hadn’t yielded fruit.  Until this year.  It was so loaded we had to support the weaker limbs with stilts despite heavy pruning during the summer!  We were so excited because we’d been told it was the sweetest fruit but almost never had a crop.  It looked like we had accomplished our goal!

But this winter had only just started.

We’d already had almost a week of mild freezes – just enough for frost, but not enough to freeze the fruit.  Grandma Jeanette had called them “sugar freezes.”  Now I knew that was because citrus fruit needs five to seven days of light freezes to sweeten.  However, the one deep freeze could destroy the whole crop as it would freeze the fruit through the skins and rot them.  We had watered down each tree carefully just before sunrise after each of the light freezes, but the forecast said tomorrow, January 7, 2010, we would wake to temperatures below 28 degrees.  In our little area, we sunk two to four degrees below what the news said every time.

This would be a fruit-killing deep freeze.

And of all our citrus, the navel orange had the thinnest skin so would be the most affected.

I determined we would harvest all that fruit today.

We didn’t do school lessons, but immediately after milking the cow and feeding the chickens, we tugged the blue fruit bucket (a giant plastic washtub that held about 12 bushels) over to the tree and started picking.  I sent Christina and Rebeccah into the tree.  At 6 and 4 they were already experts at climbing through citrus trees avoiding the horridly sharp thorns.  They scrambled up and out to get the highest fruit.  We worked on for hours, singing and laughing.  And my belly contracted.  I was 41 weeks pregnant.

After her work was over, Grandma Joanne showed up.  Seems there’s this old wives tale that if you reach up a lot while you’re pregnant, your baby will be all wrapped up in their cord.  (Maybe so, as 2-year-old Kimberly, who was racing around tossing fruit her sisters plopped on the ground into the bucket, had been born with her cord around her neck.  I hung clothes out on a line her whole pregnancy.)  I told her I wasn’t wasting this fruit.  I offered her a bag.  She didn’t think that was funny.  We were almost done.  We were on our third bucket and there were only a few scattered edge pickings left.  Rebeccah had decided they were unreachable.  That was why I was on the ladder to get them.  Christina was busy, putting the last bucket’s goodies into some of the fruit boxes in the garage.

Using the ladder and 4-prong rake (the girls call it the hand-tiller or the fruit-grabber depending on which use we were employing), we managed to get all of the succulent fruit off of that beautiful tree.

That night, I couldn’t sleep.  For the first time I watched all three “Lord of the Rings” extended editions back to back in the bed as I tried to sleep.  Baby was coming.

Early morning on the coldest day of our winter of 2009-2010, Jaquline Ellouise Tart was born.

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Jaquline and Grandma Joanne – Jaquline is less than an hour old.

Christina and Louis made us sweet, fresh orange juice for celebration drinks!  (And yes, Jaquline was born with a cord so long the midwife and her assistant measured it to confirm it was the longest they’d ever seen – and it was wrapped around her neck “like a winter scarf,” according to our midwife but was too long to pose a risk.)

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Jaquline and Lucas with leaves!

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Jaquline with Daddy at a football game!

Jaquline will be nine in a few days… and the story of the navel oranges picked the day before her birth is one of her favorites!   She also loves the part about how she chose to be born on the coldest day that hit our house that winter.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Fresh New Year

Who else is excited for 2019? Who else looks at the new year like a child on Christmas morning looks at presents around the tree?

December 31, 2018

Fresh New Year

“It’s still 2018, right?” asks Kimberly, working on her History.

“Yes, it’s the last day of 2018,” I respond.  Christina pipes in with, “and our Aunt’s birthday!”  (One of their aunts is born on December 31!)

This makes me think: (uh-oh, I just heard two kids say “Mom’s writing another blog in her head.”) Yes, my children know me!

Tomorrow starts a fresh new year.  We are given a new beginning each day as the dawn warms our skies and the sun rises to dry the dew.

In the service industry, all days blend together and all the New Year has meant for me in the past 8 years was a barrage of people calling to order reservations at 1am on New Year’s Day from the Bayfront downtown or 11pm from the Saint Augustine Beach peir (two locations at the times we can never promise) so then it turns into irritated people who don’t understand the simple line, “I can’t guarantee that time at that location, you can try to call us at the time to see where our cabs are.”

I’m so glad today does not involve dispatching!  I’m only answering questions from the school table – awesome!

In 2018:

  • I started working at WGV Gymnastics as a coach (LOVE this job).
  • We closed our taxi company in December.  It feels awesome to be able to shut off my phone and not worry about missing a reservation call!
  • I’ve finished, polished, and published four new children’s books: A Foundling Furball, Alena’s Baby, The Tightrope Dare, and Fibbing Fishermen!
  • I’ve rejoiced with the addition of my best friend’s 10th baby!
  • I’ve rejoiced with my sister who is due about the same time I am!  (They will be close cousins!)
  • I’ve mourned and rejoiced with my family after my Daddy passed.
  • I celebrated the first Christmas ever without him – that was his favorite holiday.
  • Christina achieved CAP rank of C/CMSgt, become Red Cross certified, started officially babysitting, started working as needed at what she calls “my somewhat part time job,” and completed her third college semester.
  • Becky completed her second college semester, bred and raised a few dozen chicks up to “independence” for clients, raised her batches of “babies” (aka Guinea Piglets), joined gymnastics classes (finally finding something to encourage her fitness!), and has taught most of her siblings the Latin terms for every body part since she’s been dissecting animals in her biology labs!
  • Kimberly joined gymnastics classes with her gung-ho attitude and is expecting great things from herself, was gifted a bunny (she’s been saving to adopt one for almost a year but her awesome big sisters beat her to it) and Minuit has never left her side.
  • Jaquline discovered the amazing world of Geometry and everything is now interpreted in shapes or gymnastics skills!
  • Jillian started losing teeth, is studying sketching (she’s getting rather good actually!) and digital art along with Becky, and getting herself lost in the world of reading!
  • Lucas started trying to write his name!

We are all expecting amazing things to come in 2019.  God has paths lined up for us that we may not even be able to see yet – if you’d told me at the start of 2018 that I’d be teaching gymnastics for an awesome Christian boss, be pregnant again, and have no taxi company, I would have laughed.

But (positive!) God knows the desires of our hearts!  He knows I love children, love teaching, and that gymnastics has always been a dream. (Dream job come true?  YES!)  He knows Lucas loves babies and is super excited about getting to “take MY BABY home from church.”  (All the other babies he’s been around are those of church family, so he can’t take them home.)  He knows that rebuilding hybrid batteries is something else I love – tinkering with electronics as Daddy taught me & a niche few offer around here so maybe that will be our main income soon!

I’m about to polish and release a few more children’s books (maybe an entire new series working around my budding illustrators’ work!) and my goal for this year is 12 releases.

Who else is excited for 2019?  Who else looks at the new year like a child on Christmas morning looks at presents around the tree?  I see each day as a gift from God to be opened at each dawn.  I see gifts we can’t even dream of yet sitting there, waiting God’s perfect timing for us to unwrap and enjoy.  I’m praying that certain things are there – which day holds the gift of my child’s birth?  Does a gift in that pile include a property or home of our own?  Is there a gift of being able to read my books before a class, teach a grammar workshop, or tutor another child?  Only God knows what each gift holds.  My Daddy loved seeing the smiles and squeals of excitement on Christmas morning as his children opened presents – I love this part of Christmas morning as a parent too.  I can only imagine God smiling as we open each gift and yelp with excitement!

Enjoy your daily gifts in 2019!  Happy, blessed New Year!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

The Rumble of Life

How I love the blessing of carrying life!

November 14, 2018

The Rumble of Life

Today I’m very thankful for life.

My little unborn angel is rolling around and kicking, punching, or whatever inside me with such force Lucas and Jillian keep giggling at my stomach bouncing!

What an honor it is to be able to carry a new life!

From the first flutter-kicks I felt of Christina’s 15 years ago, I have been awed by the honor of being pregnant.

So, maybe my body isn’t always so happy about it, but that’s fixed.  With Christina it was routine, wake up, eat, attempt a prenatal vitamin, upchuck said prenatal, get to work, run to the bathroom, there goes breakfast, and snack on some grapes or tuna salad very slowly throughout the day praying for no puking.

When I was pregnant with Becky I was under a midwife’s care and learned a ton about how nutrition affects pregnancy – then I managed to only upchuck every prenatal vitamin, mix, or powder I tried.  So I stopped trying new supplements and simply focused on very healthy foods.

Just as Kimberly started along, my sister introduced me to Shakeology (a meal replacement nutrition drink) and the nausea with every successive pregnancy was gone!  Great nutrition and my body tolerated it!  I was over that hurdle.

Today, as our baby entertains older siblings, I’m answering standard questions: “How big is my baby?” (Lucas says this baby is HIS baby) “What color will baby’s hair be?”  “When will my baby come out?” “How can baby be so strong already?” (This as Jillian’s hand was kicked off my belly.)

Their curiosity about new life reminds me of how fascinated I am by the whole process.  I have general answers to give: “about this big,” (thanks to our scientific knowledge) “only God knows,” “when Baby is ready,” and “because Baby is strong like his big sisters and brother.”  (I don’t like to say “it” when referring to the Baby, so if I have to use a pronoun, it’s going to be a masculine one – most of the time I can manage to just use “Baby” instead.  The kids pick the one they want to use.)

My favorite question comes from Jaquline today (and I know she’s a veteran of two water births and about ready for a deeper explanation, but for now she’s still just eight): “How did Baby get inside you?”

“God took a bit of Daddy and put it in Mommy and mixed it together and He started Baby growing.” (Very simple, but literally truth.  God set up everything and if He doesn’t choose to give the spark of life, the other stuff doesn’t matter.  That has been my standard answer to that question for 14 years.)

This makes Jillian giggle while Lucas lays his head, ear down, on my tummy and says, “I love you, Baby!  Thank you God for my baby!”

I wish I could pause that moment for a while.

Seconds later, they have raced back about daily things: Jillian is outside helping with morning chores, Lucas is vrooming a vehicle (I think it’s a wooden car) up the side of the couch, Jaquline is doing her schoolwork at the big table where Kimberly and Christina already have work laid out (although they popped up to take a break and feed livestock and pets) and Becky is lumbering about as she slowly wakes up.  Life.

Today is full of impending activity: midwife appointment, college classes for Becky, college field trip for Becky (Louis will drive everyone to the park and make a fun day out of it; perks of big sister in a marine biology class), work (coaching) for me, work for Louis, normal stuff.

I’m swiping a few minutes just sitting here relishing this rumble in my tummy and thanking God for allowed me to hold His little child.  Baby seems to realize the audience is gone and slowly curls up to rest.  Baby is always most active with Lucas comes and explains something (why cars roll, what the sky looks like, how the big rooster is scary to snakes, how an orange tastes, how excited he is for “Baby to finally come out so I can see you”).

I love you, Baby Tart!  Thank you, God, for my baby! (All of them!)

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Baby Guinea Pig Names

Rebeccah’s creative naming scheme for the cute little Guinea Pig triplets!

September 22, 2018

Baby Guinea Pig Names!

Today we get to introduce our baby Guinea Pigs by name!

Rebeccah decided to use dessert names this time.  Since we won’t have them forever, she gives them “temporary” names that match their color or personalities.  We’re raising them to sell once they are at least six weeks old.  (They will be six weeks old and ready for their forever homes after October 20th.)

So this beauty is “Rocky Road.”  She is the one who looked like a squirrel at birth.  She is a gorgeous mottled brown color.

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This solid tan one is “Custard,” and she follows the dad, TobyMac, all over the run!  She is super cuddly.

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The third one is currently called “Cheesecake.”  He is the only male in the triplets.  He’s a half-and-half mix of Custard and Rocky Road as far as color goes.  He is Jillian’s new baby!

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The girls love being the Guinea Pigs’ caretakers.  They spend a lot of time cuddling and loving on them to make sure they will be just as cuddly and friendly as their parents.  So far, they are thirteen days old and super friendly.

Here is Daddy (TobyMac, big tan blob), and all three triplets!

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Mama (Taylor, big tan/brown/white) takes good care of them!

Near the end of October, we’ll be saying “goodbye” to Rocky Road and Custard as they find loving homes.  One thing I know, these cuddly, snuggly critters will forever leave their tiny pawprints on all of our hearts!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Additions to the Squad

Welcoming our newest little farm members: the Guinea Pig Triplets!

September 10, 2018

Additions to the Squad

If you’ve read my blogs, you know my oldest three girls saved and bought Guinea Pigs.  Each thought she was getting a female, but since Ginger was discovered to be TobyMac, this amazing trio of little animals became a part of our farm.  They appear to have new little ones every six months or so.  They are now called “the squad.”

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Toby and Taylor’s first little angel, whom we called “Sweet Potato,” found a home with some lovely ladies and an animal-loving girl.  (Picture is TobyMac & Sweet Potato)

Sunday, we came home to discover that Taylor had done it again!  She had birthed triplets!

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One is a mottled gray-brown color.  This one looks just like a squirrel (she’s not, I promise, we watched Taylor birth her!)

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One is multicolor (black, brown, orange, and white), this was the youngest.  Jaquline is holding this one.

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One is pure tan just like TobyMac.

These beautiful babies haven’t been named just yet as they are brand new and smaller than Sweet Potato was at birth.  (Guinea Pigs usually have twins, but their offspring are larger if single and smaller if triplets.)  These tiny babies were about 1/10th of mama’s size.  Taylor is a very good mama, and has burrows in the nest for all three of them to hide and snuggle.  Baby Guinea Pigs are super curious as soon as all their adult Guinea Pig elders lick and groom them clean.  (Even Avery, our second adult female, was helping Toby and Taylor groom these three adorable fluffy balls!)

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Now we get the joy and privilege of raising these little animals.  Three little Guinea Pigs.  Kimberly (Avery’s official owner) plans on saving some money to make another Guinea Pig run and if one of these littles are a male, she’ll keep him for Avery to pair up with.  Of course, Jillian has claimed ownership and caretaking of the next one they keep.   Kimberly and Jillian are now mapping out money-saving goals to have $80 for materials in six weeks.  I see lots of lawn-mowing and car-cleaning in their near future.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

 

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