A Christmas Story

Last Christmas, reporter Julia Zaher interviewed our family and wrote this beautiful little piece in the local paper. Who could've guessed there would be another Christmas miracle to add to our family this year! This is what she wrote:

The Christmas story starts with the miraculous formation of a family. This year, a very special local couple are rejoicing in the amazing circumstances that brought their family together. Blaine and Annmarie can't go anywhere without being stopped again and again as people "ooh" and "aah" over their babies. And rightly so. Their identical twin daughters, beautiful 10-month-old girls with fiery red hair and bright blue eyes, are undeniably adorable. Eden and Elle were sent to their parents not through supernatural conception or even modern fertility treatments, but by the selfless act of birth parents who knew they couldn't raise the chubby duo. What a gift they have given. Blaine, a structural engineer, and Annmarie, a peri-operative nurse, have been married for 10 years. They built their dream house by themselves and hoped to fill it with children. Christmas, a time made for little ones, has been painful in recent years. Two years ago, Annmarie planted a flower garden and started selling flowers at her parent's produce farm. She was saving money for an adoption, and customers came to know of the couple's longing for a child. "My mother always said we're going to get twins," Annmarie said. Annmarie wasn't so sure. Then the adoption agency called. A woman was going to give birth to twins in a month. Did they want them? Silly question. The real question became: Did the birth parents really want to go through with the adoption? The girls were born and Annmarie and Blaine were right there to hold them for that first week of life. Then the birth parents changed their minds and decided to parent. "It was so heartbreaking," Ann Marie said, crying. Over several months there were two more times when word came that they would get the girls ... and then that they wouldn't. Finally -- when the twins were six months old -- the birth parents relinquished their rights and fulfilled their original adoption plan. The girls had grown so much, from four and five pounds at birth to 15 pounds by the time they came home. A huge welcome banner over the Farm announced the wondrous event. "It's a miracle. It's a complete miracle," Annmarie said. "These were the most prayed for babies in the world," grandma Marlene told me. And likely the most loved. They have become the daughters of doting parents with an extended family eager to kiss and cuddle the girls and, yes, even change diapers. Lots of diapers. "We're still adjusting," Blaine said of the sudden shift from no kids to twins. "They'll be adjusting the rest of their life," grandpa Dwight said with a smile. It's an adjustment they're more than happy to make, especially on this first Christmas as a family. "It will just be the most wonderful time," Annmarie said. "This will be a major celebration." It will. And these girls, loved so much by so many people, will have a wonderful life.