Couple shares birthday with best present ever

Faith Nash is in for some big birthday parties in the years ahead.

Just a day old, the blue-eyed girl with a shock of auburn hair spent most of Wednesday sleeping unaware of the incredible coincidence of her birth. Her mother, 26-year-old Erika Cherry and father, 34-year-old Tyler Nash, were born on Dec. 23, making their daughter the best birthday present ever.

"We can get one cake," Tyler said in a hospital room with Erika and Faith at St. Francis Medical Center. "We'll just put three names on it."

The parents found out their common birthday on their first date, which happened to fall on a Dec. 22.

"I made him show me his driver's license," Erika remembered with a smile.

The relationship blossomed after that, and continued to grow when they learned a child was on the way.

But they never expected, or even wanted, one birthday for the entire family.

"I wanted her to have her own day," said Tyler, a chemistry teacher at Palmer Ridge High School.

Faith's grandfather Paul Cherry, knew better when he heard the baby was due close to Christmas. Things come in threes.
"I knew as soon as she told me the due date was Dec. 21," he said. "It's no surprise."

Erika watched the baby's due date pass and had just one thing in mind for her daughter.

"Not on Christmas."

The baby's parents knew too well the trouble of having a birthday so close to Santa's arrival. The celebration can seem to get mixed up in the holiday whirl, a footnote to a bigger celebration.

The labor pains hit early Tuesday. Erika went to the hospital at 2 a.m., and was sent home because doctors thought the baby's birth wasn't imminent. She went back hours later and learned her birthday might welcome her to motherhood, too.

Faith still took her time, arriving at 7:59 p.m.

The 7-pound, 11-ounce girl, made up for lost time, petulantly refusing to sleep during her first hours in the world.

Tyler stepped in, spending Wednesday night holding and walking his daughter and birthday-mate as he learned the first steps of fatherhood.

"She's pretty special," he said smiling at the gift he got just on time. "Mom's healthy and baby's healthy, that's the best present."
And little Faith won't have to worry much about Christmas crimping her family's triple birthday parties next year.

"We're going to have a big half-birthday celebration," Erika said.
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Contact the writer: 636-0240 or tom.roeder@gazette.com