James

James, wife Beth ,Britton,Lucy and John



It's Mother's Day 1985, 12:12 p.m. and I am about to become a mother for the sixth time.

It was August of 1984 when our red Plymoth station wagon, windows rolled down(we didn't have the luxury of air conditioning), bikes and suitcases roped to the luggage rack, kids hanging out the windows, drove into hot , humid downtown Houston.  Jim's instructions were "report in to the main office when you arrived". We fought over who was going to drive downtown, neither of us efficient at driving in big cities. (I remember feeling like the " Beverly Hillbillies ".)

Thousands of miles from "home" this flat, green less,bug filled place

was going to become our home for the next ten years. I had cried when Jim called me from Washington D.C. to tell me where our first office was going to be. They had more then promised us that our first post would be on the same coast as where we had applied. Someone need geography

lessons! My father told me not to cry, set a good example for your

children. "No one will come see us" I yelled. And I was pretty much right about that!

I've regressed, sorry, Mother's Day. My mother had arrived the night before at 10:00 P.M. We had cleaned all day getting ready for her and our

new little one. Barely getting to sleep I awoke to a very wet

bed, I guess all I needed to know was that there was someone to take

care of my little ones while I was at the hospital.Now I was ready to welcome our second little boy into the world.

Who wouldn't feel sick all the time in this horrible climate.I just couldn't seem to adjust to the weather, was I ever going to feel well again? Then came the signs that I'd known before.  Knowing that this was going to be our last child Jim was overjoyed when I shared the results of the ultra sound with him.....after four darling girls.....we were to have another boy! His name

was immediately set in stone....James Wesley Tunnell. James

after him (and many other James's) Wesley after his dad .

We walked the halls for hours after I got to the hospital trying to get my labor started.  This was defiantly not the norm for me. Please,  I thought, just let me lay down, curl up and sleep. Then those familiar pains started,there was no turning back now.  They got me in bed, hooked me up to a fetal monitor , my labor pains getting worse. Then I heard someone say that the babies heart beat had stopped and they were rocking me back and forth to get it started again. My panic subsided.  Again one of the nurses

said something...."did you know this was her sixth baby!".....they

rushed me into the delivery room...

We were both looking at each other, laughing, laughing, I'd say almost

hysterically. Then we said to each other,"It's over, it's over".

I know the nurses probley thought we meant the delivery of our perfect,

beautiful son, but, we  meant it's over. We'd brought into this world the six children we were meant to have. We knew without a doubt that they were each part of our family sent blessedly from Heaven above, but that now we were through.

James Wesley was born at 12:12 on May 12th, he weighed in at 8lb.12 ounces and we were in room 412!

James brought such a joy to our family and continues to do so. So that is the story of the best mother's day present I've ever gotten.