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TAMPA - Solomon Ezekiel Smith entered the world Tuesday morning amid the sounds of a hallelujah chorus.
His four siblings, ages 1 to 9, sang gospel hymns as he drew his first breath, right there in the front seat of the family van. The rain poured outside, but they sang on.
It began early Tuesday, around 4 a.m., when his mother, Laretha Smith, 27, felt her contractions start. She was supposed to be induced into labor with her fifth child next week. She had hoped to work until Monday.
And besides, someone had to get the children to school. So she got them up, prayed with them, got them dressed and fed. The contractions kept coming.
She called work and left a message: "I don't think I'll be making it in today." She called her minister. She called her husband, Ernest, 32, who works the overnight shift at Wal-Mart.
Just come on home when you get off at 7 a.m., she told him. The contractions came harder, faster. She called her husband back. He asked: Should I stop for the Blue Bell cherry cheesecake ice cream you wanted?
Forget the ice cream, she said. Get home now.
Smith walked her four children through the rain and put them in the van outside their West Tampa home. She thought about dropping her kids off at school, then realized she couldn't drive. She crawled into the front passenger seat and awaited her husband, stuck in morning traffic on Dale Mabry Highway.
"We just started singing church songs," she said. "I didn't want to upset them."
And then she knew, as only a mother of five can: It was time. She pushed hard. The children sang. The 1-year-old boy shouted, "Baby! Baby!"
She delivered Solomon just after 7:30 a.m., then laid him across her lap. Her husband arrived a few minutes later.
"He looked like a deer in headlights," Laretha Smith said. "He looked really, really scared."
Ernest Smith wrapped his new son in a shirt and raced to St. Joseph's Hospital.
By Tuesday afternoon, the mother could smile about her hectic morning. Her little gospel singers laughed and played inside her hospital room. Solomon weighed in at 7 pounds 9 ounces, and measured 193/4 inches long, with lovely fat cheeks.
"It's a joyous experience," Laretha Smith said. "It's God; he took care of everything."
At least the Smiths won't have to explain to their children where babies come from. They've seen it firsthand.
"I think we've pretty much covered the bases on that one," Laretha said.
Ernest Smith sat in the corner of the room Tuesday looking exhausted, watching as TV news crews filed in to interview his wife. He had been awake more than 24 hours, working the overnight shift, having a new son, racing to the hospital.
"It was a real surprise," he said. "It didn't come out any way I was expecting."
Still, in all the bustle, he managed to bring his wife a dozen pink roses. After all, she had conducted the chorus.