FIDELITY
by
Zachoia Cooper
(Part 3)
It was Saturday night. Dari tumbled into bed, thankful for the weekend of rest ahead. ( The restaurant, called Maria's Diner, was closed on Sundays and most Mondays.) Her family, the Iglesiases, was an immigrant family who had just started a restaurant business.
The past week had been unusually busy for a new restaurant. That was good. Now the Iglesias could feed their seven children: Jimeno, who was twelve, Dari, who was eleven, Antonio, nine, Eva, who was almost seven, Carl, five, Esteban, three, and an unborn baby. The baby was going to come really soon.
Dari thanked God that the baby would be born into a world where he would have a roof over his head and food in his belly.
The past week had been unusually busy for a new restaurant. That was good. Now the Iglesias could feed their seven children: Jimeno, who was twelve, Dari, who was eleven, Antonio, nine, Eva, who was almost seven, Carl, five, Esteban, three, and an unborn baby. The baby was going to come really soon.
Dari thanked God that the baby would be born into a world where he would have a roof over his head and food in his belly.
The next morning she woke up earlier than usual. She could feel something was different. The usual smell of Sunday morning breakfast wasn’t there, for one thing. Then she remembered. It was Eva’s birthday. She got up and went to the kitchen, expecting her mom to be in the kitchen starting Sunday morning breakfast. When she got there, only Jimeno was in the kitchen.
“Mama is having the baby. The Carter’s are bringing us to church,” he said.
Dari got everybody up and ready for church. They were so excited that they forgot to eat.
“ I’m getting a sibling for my birthday!” Eva told Ted Carter when he came.
Teddy’s birthday had been about a month ago. He had bragged that his Nerf gun was the greatest birthday present ever. “Did you hear? A baby sibling! That is a better present than a silly old Nerf gun.” Eva ended.
Teddy’s birthday had been about a month ago. He had bragged that his Nerf gun was the greatest birthday present ever. “Did you hear? A baby sibling! That is a better present than a silly old Nerf gun.” Eva ended.
“ No. A Nerf gun is a present. This baby just happened to come on your birthday.” Ted argued back.
“No, This counts! In fact…” And so it went.
When everybody was loaded up and in the car, Mrs. Carter handed them food, saying that 'she figured that all the new big siblings would forget about eating’. Mr. Carter hopped into the drivers seat and they left.
While they were eating and driving to church, Eva and Ted were still arguing about the best birthday presents. Lysa Carter and Dari were arguing with Gregory Carter and all the Iglesias boys about whether this baby was a boy or girl. All the boys, that is, except Esteban. He couldn’t care less about which gender the baby was. He just knew that new babies were exciting.
Esteban was right. A feeling of anticipation and excitement was definitely in the air. In church, Pastor Rathbun announced that the Iglesias baby was coming. Everybody at church was guessing the gender of the baby.
While they were eating and driving to church, Eva and Ted were still arguing about the best birthday presents. Lysa Carter and Dari were arguing with Gregory Carter and all the Iglesias boys about whether this baby was a boy or girl. All the boys, that is, except Esteban. He couldn’t care less about which gender the baby was. He just knew that new babies were exciting.
Esteban was right. A feeling of anticipation and excitement was definitely in the air. In church, Pastor Rathbun announced that the Iglesias baby was coming. Everybody at church was guessing the gender of the baby.
After church and Sunday School, the Iglesias children went to the Carter’s house. They were all giddy. Everyone was making so much noise that the Carter baby, Samuel, woke up crying and three-year-old Heather Carter wouldn’t take a nap. Everyone was restless. Then Mrs. Carter came into the room.
“You have a baby sister!” she sang. “Get into the car and we’ll go to see her.”
Mrs. Carter drove them to the birthing center, leaving Mr. Carter to look after the Carter children. In the room, Mr. Iglesias was sitting on the edge of the bed. Mrs. Iglesias was lying down holding a little bundle. Everyone gathered round to look at the bundle. She was tiny. Her little baby eyes were closed. Her hair was dark and curly. She had a lot of hair for a newborn. All in all, she was a very cute baby. Mrs. Carter kept saying she was the sweetest thing ever.
“Oh, isn’t she the sweetest thing ever!” Mrs. Carter said for the millionth time. “ Do you know what you are going to name her?”
“No,” Mr. Iglesias said. “I guess that in the busyness of starting our restaurant, we didn’t find time to start thinking of a name.”
“ Busyness of starting a business,” Dari thought. “That sound funny.” Something was tingling in the back of her brain. “Oh!” she thought. “ Eva’s birthday today! In the busyness of the business, we forgot about presents and a cake!”
She whispered this to Mrs. Carter.
“ Maria, Carlton,” Mrs Carter addressed the Iglesias parents. “ I will let you rest for a moment. The kids and I will go to the Hallmark down the street.”
“No!!! Please may we stay?” all the children pleaded.
“ Well, I’ll let Eva stay since it is her birthday, but if we all stay here your poor mother will be so tired out.” Mrs. Carter replied. So all the kids except for Eva went to Hallmark.
When they realized that now was the perfect time to shop for Eva’s gifts, the frowns turned to smiles. Mrs. Carter had 50 dollars in her purse that was used to buy presents and a cake.. The Iglesiases would pay her back when they got home. ( Mrs. Carter did insist that they only payed her back 40 dollars so that part of the gifts could be from her family.)
Later that day, all the Iglesiases were gathered in there living room, even Mrs. Iglesias and the baby. They had had cake and Eva had opened her presents. Now they were sitting in a semi-circle around the only couch in the house. Mr. Iglesias sat on the couch. He addressed them. “ Well, children, you have a dark, curly-headed baby sister who was born at 3:01 am and weighs 4.7 pounds and 12 inches…”
“That's a foot!” Carl called out. Everybody laughed.
“ Yes. Very good, Carl. As I was saying, you have this beautiful baby sister and we don’t have a name for her. If I were her, I wouldn’t like that. Any ideas?”
"Papa, we could name her Ana. That is what Esteban would have been named if he was a girl." Antonio suggested.
“ Remember that when I was born you forgot to think of a boy’s name so you just named me Carlton Jr.? You could name her Maria Jr.” Carl suggested.
“Hmmm. Most of the time, the boys are the juniors.” Papa said.
“Her middle name could be Maria.” Jimeno suggested.
Name idea after name idea was mentioned. What kind of name should it be? Short, medium, or long? Spanish, American or other? Should she have a namesake, should her name have a special meaning, or should she just have a name that sounds nice? These and many more questions were asked. After about an hour, Somebody Maria Iglesias still didn’t have a first name. Then Dari got and idea.
“ This past year or so has been quite the adventure. When we immigrated here we had no idea if Papa would get a job or if we would have a steady income. As it turns out, Papa didn’t find a job at first. But we did find a good church. We prayed about it and they prayed about it. Then God gave us an answer to our dilemma. The answer was totally different then any of us expected. We expected some people to call us and say that they needed a metal factory worker. God, instead, had us start a restaurant. Papa doesn’t work as many hours as he did as a factory worker. We can spend family time together doing the business. We have a home that we don’t even have to pay for because we bought the land and built our house and restaurant on it ourselves. We don't have to pay mortgage on the land because God gave us a wonderful church family that pitched in to help us buy land and build the restaurant. By ourselves, we would of never thought of a restaurant.
It was God who was faithful to us and provided for us. God was faithful. God was loyal. God was steadfast. And He still is. A synonyms for all those adjectives I used to describe God is fidelity. I propose that we name our new sister and daughter Fidelity in honor of God’s fidelity.”
It was God who was faithful to us and provided for us. God was faithful. God was loyal. God was steadfast. And He still is. A synonyms for all those adjectives I used to describe God is fidelity. I propose that we name our new sister and daughter Fidelity in honor of God’s fidelity.”
“Hear, hear! I second the motion.” Jimeno said. “ I agree.
"Don’t you think that would be a nice name, Carlton?” Mrs. Iglesias asked.
Agreement was all around.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It was the Sunday a week from Eva’s birthday. The Iglesiases were going to church. Today was special, too. They went into church and sat down in the pew. The service started. The song leader, Mr. Ken Weismann, stood up behind the pulpit.
“ Today is a special day for all of us gathered here.” His big voice boomed out over the entire congregation. “ God has blessed us with a new baby. So before the sermon, we will dedicated this baby to God. We aren’t really giving anything to God. We are just acknowledging the fact that she belongs to him and that he cares for her. We are offering up a prayer that she will realize that to and live a life that is purposeful and God-honoring. Before we dedicated this child, turn to number 40 in your hymn books and let us all stand to sing ‘Great is Thy Faithfulness.”
After the song was done, Mr. And Mrs. Iglesias stood in front of the congregation, holding the newest addition to the church family. Pastor Rathbun spoke a little bit. Then he said, “ So now, I dedicate Fidelity Maria Iglesias to God and I pray the he will bless this child, and that she will grow up to serve him.” Then he prayed a short prayer. “ Lord, I pray that your will be done in the life of Fidelity, and that you will bless her and her family as you have blessed them already. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
“Oh, yes,” Dari thought. “God has blessed us. He most definitely has!”
The End
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Signed,
Wiggles the Polliwog
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