I have lived quite a colorful life in my forty years. Born the youngest of ten children in Miami, Florida to Cuban immigrants, I lived in a bilingual wonderland, surrounded by bizarre characters. I decided to become a doctor in Internal Medicine and busted my butt in medical school at Tulane University in New Orleans for four years. (That is four Mardi Gras worth of experiences we may discuss at a later date.) Later, I returned to Miami and completed my residency at the University of Miami...or the Heart of Darkness as I lovingly refer to it. I joined a private practice group in Miami Beach that cared for the rich and famous and drove to work from my apartment on the beach in my convertible every day thinking life couldn't get better. That is when I met and married the man of my dreams....except, he decided to become a doctor too. So, I gave up the Miami life and back to medical school in New Orleans we went.(Adding five more Mardi Gras and two children to the mix) Right before he finished his last year of school....BAM...Hurricane Katrina came and destroyed our entire world. My thriving hospitalist business was gone overnight, Mike's school ceased to exist, our home was uninhabitable. So with no time to mourn, we packed up the kiddies and moved all the way to a strange new world....Michigan. In these last five years, we have had several bouts of adversity, the hardest being the loss of our son Zachary shortly after birth, but not one of these expreriences could have prepared me for what has happened only a short 13 weeks ago.
With Mike finishing up his fellowship next year, we thought it would be a fantastic time to expand our family. Eva wanted a dog but I thought a baby would be much easier to potty train. So we went to work and work and work. Doctor Jonathan Ayers is a mild mannered fellow with a fantastic bedside manner. I just love him. So he calmly informed me at my six week ultrasound that I was the lucky parent of TWINS. I was in shock...and went strait home to be comforted by my husband. Mike assured me this was a blessing and that we would be just fine..."At least its not triplets," I remember him telling me. I instantly regretted ever having doubts about being a mother of twins when I started to spot several times a day for the next week and a half. How horrible I felt over questioning the blessing of twins when this assured miscarriage took away any hope of being a mother again. Devastated, I returned to Dr. Ayers who soothed me and asked if we could perform an ultrasound. Despair and sadness was all I could muster. I remember praying to Heavenly father as the ultrasound came down. I asked him to give me another chance. "There's one heartbeat," he said. I started to cry from happiness and relief. One baby survived. "And there's the second heartbeat." Could God's grace be so good as to allow this miracle. Both my babies were alive and kicking. Now I was sobbing. Suddenly, the calm and collected doctor pulled his wand away and cleared his throat. I had never seen him un-cool so my antenna went up. "What's wrong?" He just looked at me and said, "Let's take another look shall we. He put the wand down again and repeated the past statements. "There's one and there's two....and there's the third heartbeat. Mrs. Harris, you are having triplets."I couldn't see the screen through all my tears which stopped suddenly. I can tell you that psychogenic paralysis is real. I had it. The doctor kept talking but I didn't hear a thing for the next thirty minutes and my face was paralyzed in this wide eyed, open mouthed stare. When I finally sat in the car to drive to the hospital to inform Mike of the news, I began to hysterically laugh. For anyone who believes God doesn't have a sense of humor, let him review our life over the past 11 years. President Bush, I love you, but nothing in my forty years of experiences has prepared me for what is to come. And we couldn't be happier.
