Giggle #30 TWINS?!?

First- a little Daddy and Grace cuteness...

Kindred spirits.  You've seen how much he makes Caleb smile. Little Miss has him wrapped around her little finger as well.  Love.

Anyway, I was in the check out line at Target today when the cashier looked up and saw the babies in their stroller.  He got all excited (happens all the time) and asked if they were twins.  I told him they were five months old and he looked at me and said "What did you think when you found out it was twins?!"

This is one of many questions I get about the twins' origins.  I get the "Do they run in your family" line all the time. And sometimes I'll get the unusually forward person who just comes right out and asks what everyone wants to know, "were you using infertility drugs or IVF or are they spontaneous?"  Of course, if someone happens to ask me this, they rarely choose the less offensive wording and usually ask if they're "natural". 

I know a lot of women who get pretty upset about that.  It doesn't really bother me too much, I mean, my babies are natural babies, they're not robots.  They were, however, conceived with some help outside of the "normal" conception process.  So we didn't use the good old fashioned way per say, and therefore we didn't go "natural".  Eh, whatever, it doesn't matter how they got here.  They're here and they're fabulous.

But when this gentleman asked me what I thought when I found out it was twins, it brought me back.  A part of me really wanted to tell him that I was SO glad that both blastocysts stuck and I was so hoping that they both would, but usually I don't go into much detail with strangers (from time to time I'll tell someone when they ask if twins run in our family that, no, we did IVF, but usually I just say nope and leave it at that).  I decided in this instance to keep it pretty "standard" and said I was overwhelmed and excited all at once.  Truth.  But in that moment that I found out it was twins, I was mostly just over the moon excited. 

I had suspected since we got our first beta back that it was twins, though...so I wasn't all too surprised. :)

I looked back at my records and it was one year ago yesterday when we found out that there were two little luckies hanging on for the ride.  We were pregnant with Twins, and it was such an amazing day!

Thinking of everything that's happened in the year since that moment is overwhelming in itself.  I honestly can't believe the year we've had, from the trials to the amazing miracles and everything in between.  We got pregnant with twins, I carried them (with a lot of struggle, but not as much as most twin moms) to 35 weeks, delivered them via c-section at a healthy (although I didn't think so at the time) 6lbs and 5 and a half pounds, and helped them grow to the incredibly healthy and happy little people they are today.

We are so truly and unbelievably blessed.

And so incredibly exhausted all at once.

I smiled at that cashier and told him that it's tough, but so, so fun and he laughed as he said that he was sure it was fun but wouldn't want to find out.  Yeah, not everyone is built for this journey.  I think God gives us only what we can handle, and I'm feeling pretty good about God's confidence in my abilities with the trials He's given me.  But oh, the rewards are so unbelievably beautiful. 

3/29/11

3/30/12

I always get a giggle out of the reactions of strangers when they see the twins.  Whether it's the "how did this happen?" type of questions, the "are they really twins? He's SO much bigger!" type questions, or just the "Could you be any luckier?" type of questions.  I have to say, I like those last ones the best.  And no, I couldn't be any luckier.  We struck pure gold.