WEST MONROE, La. (9/3/2019) — Ah, Labor Day weekend. A time to relax. A time to spend time with family. However, for one Ouachita Parish couple, they put the labor in Labor Day weekend by having a baby they didn’t know was coming.
Macharia and Veronica Howell’s weekend changes when Veronica started getting stomach pains. “The pains continued just about every hour. I would try to go to sleep and I would wake up and I would be hurting, so I would just go on back to sleep.” says Veronica.
She had noticed her body changing in the last few months, but she thought it was because she and her husband had started working out and taking supplements.
The couple says they know what having a baby feels and looks like. They already have two kids.
They went about their daily Saturday routine. She made Mac breakfast and prayed with their children before going to lay back down.
“I thought maybe she just had the bubblies or something like that.” says Mac. “So, I just went on to work.” Mac works at Sparks Nissan/Kia.
“But as we can see, it wasn’t just bubble guts.” says Veronica. “I remembered the nurse when I was having my son, she was like, don’t push yet, and I was like, how can you not push? It’s coming. So, I felt down and I felt the sack, so I said, oh, yeah. This is a baby.”
That’s when Mac got a call he never expected. “I’m like, Veronica calling this early, she knows I’m after this money up here. I answered the phone, she said ‘The paramedics are here, I’m getting rushed to the hospital.’ I was like, Oh my goodness! Heart just dropped. I said what’s going on, she said, I just had a baby. What?!?”
“I answered the phone, she said ‘The paramedics are here, I’m getting rushed to the hospital.’ I was like, Oh my goodness! Heart just dropped. I said what’s going on, she said, I just had a baby. What?!?”
Mac howell, unexpectedly new father
After the shock wore off, Mac & Veronica had to pick a name. They decided to give their new baby boy a powerful name: Malik, which means “King”.
Obviously, the Howell’s weren’t expecting to have a baby, and had little to no supplies for an infant. Mac’s co-workers at Sparks Nissan/Kia quickly got together a care package full of bottles, diapers, and other necessities. “I actually had to run an errand and I come back and someone said Mac’s wife had a baby.” says co-worker Michael John Lenard. “I said, ‘whatever’ and sure enough it was true. So, what a great miracle and a great blessing.”
In case you are wondering, Mac did come back in Saturday to sell one more car so he could get his now seriously needed monthly bonus. The customer: NBC 10/FOX 14 Chief Meteorologist Jarod Floyd.
