THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 8, 1996 TAG: 9605070163
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CARROLLTON LENGTH: Long : 171 lines
``... if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.''
Malachi 3:30
ANGELA JONES is talking on the telephone and groping for an appointment book for her husband's housecleaning business while a half-clothed infant hangs open-mouthed, eyes wide, over one arm.
Meanwhile, Angela's 5-year-old daughter, Shakeeta, who is playing outdoors, has decided to surprise her mom with a visit. She's knocking on the door rather than simply entering.
And the family dog, Lady, a sleek little dachshund, adds to the chaos by barking to be let in as well.
Then, from a playpen in the living room of the small but tidy two-bedroom mobile home in Carrollton - the whines and gurgles of three more little voices begging for mom's attention begin to chorus.
``Oh, yes, we offer a surface cleaning, a thorough cleaning or a spring cleaning,'' Angela says, all business. ``Would you like to set up an appointment?''
The cacophony of floor-level baby sounds rises insistently. Shakeeta keeps knocking. Lady is still barking.
``How about Friday?'' Angela says, turning her head for a moment in the direction of the baby sounds.
This is life - day in, day out - for the mother of Isle of Wight County's newest quadruplets. By most accounts, they're the county's only quadruplets in recent years.
Born in Newport News at Riverside Regional Medical Center on Valentine's Day, all four boys, conceived naturally, without the aid of fertility drugs, were healthy and kicking when they were born. The trend has continued for Kameron, Karon, Khalil and Karlyle.
Angela, 26, and her husband, Darin, 27, brought the babies home to Carrollton on March 9.
Through it all, faith has sustained this mother of five - six, if you count the dog that demands almost as much attention and affection as the babes. And it is her faith in the fact that all of it is part of God's plan for her family that continues to keep the young mother going.
``God is not going to give you more than you can bear. Sometimes, when you're faced with a lot of stress under certain circumstances, anybody is going to doubt him. And we've been under a lot of stress, a lot of financial strain. But God has turned it around. He's given us so many blessings, we can't hold them all.''
Angela came to that conclusion soon after the babies came home. She was thumbing through the Bible, she said, when she found the passage in the New Testament chapter of Malachi that told her in times of tribulation God has the ability to ``open the windows of heaven'' and pour out blessings that ``there shall not be room enough to receive.''
And that's exactly what happened in the lives of the Jones family, Angela believes. Four babies. She barely had room for the blessings.
``My stomach,'' she says, laughing and rubbing her still-swollen belly. ``They really did a job on my stomach. Maybe I can have a tummy tuck.''
The family car, a Chevette, wouldn't hold the blessings either. The Joneses had to borrow a van to bring the babies home. But God answered that need, Angela says, when a benevolent Richmond resident gave the Joneses a spacious van. The vehicle sits in the mobile home's driveway a good bit of the time, four baby seats in place.
``We don't go a whole lot,'' Angela says. ``It's just hard to get everybody ready. We've been to the mall once. It was great - everybody was stopping us to look at the babies, asking questions - but it was exhausting. I don't think we got out of there until about 8 o'clock, and we never did get any shopping done.''
There has been little need for much shopping since the infants were born, the first in Riverside's 75-year history. Generosity has flowed to the Joneses like - well, blessings from heaven. The babies have been provided with diapers, with formula, with clothes from as far away as Texas.
``People have just been so generous,'' Angela says as she puts one baby down and picks up another to change and feed. ``The only thing we've had to buy for them is their little christening outfits.''
The Jones boys were christened in Rose of Sharon Apostolic Church in Waverly on Easter Sunday. The van has come in handy to take them from one relative's church to another. Relatives - from grandmothers to great-great-grandfather - all have requested command performances, and the Joneses, just as they have graciously accepted the attention of everybody from the media to perfect strangers, have obliged.
At each church service, their mother says, the boys have slept quietly through it all. Back home, the chaos continues.
All four boys have gained weight steadily from their average birth weight of about 3 pounds. At last check Khalil and Karlyle weighed about 7 pounds, their brothers, Kameron and Karon, a little more than 6. They've started drinking apple juice spiked with water, and to encourage them to sleep through the night, which still isn't happening, Angela and Darin have slipped a little baby cereal into their late-night feedings.
``Maybe they have their days and nights mixed up,'' Angela says. ``I guess that happens. It seems like, right now, they wake up fussing and whining about midnight. Around 6 a.m., they go back to sleep. Darin and I stand looking at them and say, `Now you want to sleep.' But it's getting better. The cereal seems to be helping.''
Family, friends and perfect strangers all have helped. Angela's mother, Uteria Hardy, stayed for about two weeks after the babies were born. Darin's mother, Linda Jones, has offered to take the babies for a short while this summer to give the parents a break.
A neighbor and friend from Angela's church comes by almost daily to help in any way she can. Riverside sent a health-care nurse for several weeks after the babies came home. Two other women, both from a Suffolk church, have made the quads a mission, Angela says.
``They come in ready to give the babies their bath, make formula, do whatever needs to be done. This morning, they folded a load of clothes for me. I didn't tell them I still had another load in the closet I hadn't folded from the day before. I can't seem to keep up with the laundry.''
The Joneses have decided that the boys probably are two sets of twins - Kameron and Karon, the smaller infants; Khalil and Karlyle, the larger. They have similar habits, their mother says, cry alike, eat alike, look alike. One infant in each set has a similar birth mark on his chest.
``I think that's a neat way of God helping us to distinguish them,'' Angela says, smiling.
There has been only one major near-mixup. Kameron and Karon had colds, and the Joneses took their babies to the emergency room.
``Kameron was taking medication,'' Angela says. ``The nurse wanted to know which baby was which. I looked at Darin and he looked at me. I guess we were nervous. Finally, he said, `That's Kameron.' When we undressed them, he was right.''
The blessing of the birthmark divulged the true identities.
So far, the Joneses are managing to cope with the chaos. Angela has nothing but praise for her husband's helping hands. When the boys wake in the middle of the night, she says, she takes two; Darin takes two.
``He's very appreciative of his boys. He's so proud of them. He helps out in every way he can.''
Since they have settled into a routine, Angela has gotten involved in the family business again. She takes care of the telephone, schedules appointments and even, when there's a baby sitter available, has gone out to help with the cleaning chores. It gives her a break, she says, and she enjoys the work.
There's a goal ahead - a larger home.
So far, the Joneses have managed to pack all of their blessings into the mobile home: the boys, their daughter, the dog, a playpen the boys are quickly outgrowing, a kind of bunk-bed crib a local church gave them, two windup swings.
``The swings are a blessing,'' Angela says, smiling as she situates a baby in one.
And Angela firmly believes another blessing will come, if not one way, another.
``I believe the Lord is going to bless us with a larger home. We'll find something we can afford, a way to afford it.''
It's easy for this mother who has had so many blessings fall from the heavens to continue to believe.
She believed the babies were meant to be. She went through the pregnancy with few of the health problems usually associated with multiple births. The babies were born perfect in every way. Clothes came, diapers came, food, a vehicle large enough for the entire family.
What more could any mother want?
``I want to be able to teach these children what is morally right in the home,'' she says. ``I want to teach them about our heavenly Father and what he expects from them. I want to be a strong, supportive mother. I want them to grow up knowing that whatever they want out of life is theirs if they're willing to work for it.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
BLESSED MOTHER
Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
The whole Jones family goes for a walk in their Carrollton
neighborhood, where they live in a two-bedroom mobile home. Angela,
26, and her husband, Darin, 27, brought the babies home on March 9.
Angela Jones bottle-feeds Kahlil. The babies are drinking water
mixed with apple juice.
Shakeeta Jones holds Karlyle, one of her four brothers.
KEYWORDS: MULTIPLE BIRTHS by CNB