So, I sat down to scribble a few sentiments from our September and suddenly realized that I sustained only three stingy snapshots last month!!! But cease from sadness. There were substantially more videos, which I have strung together to spotlight the saga that is our status. Savor these spirited snippets!
And since I spoke of the three stingy snapshots, here they are.
We did have one fairly interesting discovery last month that I will take a moment to share --- our little boys are NOT identical twins after all. Back on September 24, 2013, two tiny embryo's were transferred to my body. And I have the pictures to prove it. At our 6 week ultrasound, we listened to 3 perfect heartbeats and watched as the doctor showed us exactly where one little embryo had split into two. Then, I had 25 total ultrasounds throughout their pregnancy, in which this was never questioned. But when our trio was born, this momma just knew that her baby boys did not look alike. It especially became obvious when their hair grew in, as Taerik clearly has red hair, while Drake is blonde, On top of that, their eye color and body builds are different. So where does my mind go? Something must be wrong with one of them. Now, I'm not going to say that I have had deep-rooted fears or anything, but in my heart of hearts I worried that since everyone told me they were identical twins, then something had to be wrong. And so, last month we had them genetically tested. The lab tech actually called me in person, as opposed to mailing the results, because he found this case so unique. Without ever having met in person, he immediately asked, "Do your boys have different hair and eye colors?" Sure enough, their DNA is not an identical match.
Well, that only heightened the mystery. WHERE DID THE THIRD BABY COME FROM??? While I already knew that the answer was none other than God, my human nature sought more information. After numerous correspondence back and forth with both the embryologist and the genetic testing lab, our best guess is that they are a rare form of twinning called discordant monozygotic twins. It is believed that our boys did indeed split from one embryo (monozygotic), however their epigenetic DNA diverged almost immediately into two unique strands (discordant). Though we had never even heard of such a thing, the doctor assured us that there should be absolutely no medical concerns. Bottom line --- they are not supposed to look identical because their DNA is different. Even mom and dad learned some science this month!
"As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything."
(Ecclesiastes 11:5)
