The twins birth story

Wouldn't you know, I'd plan a yard sale and the temps would soar to 100+. Needless to say, I was dragging my feet ~ but managed to do a tad bit sorting and paint a few sale signs on Friday. But when Shawn called late Friday afternoon saying Nicole was having contractions, everything came to a halt. They were going to the hospital to get her checked out. But when I hadn't heard from them by the next morning, I got up at 5:30 to get started on the yard sale. I had no more than got dressed when Shawn called telling us that Nicole's c-section was scheduled for 7am! I immediately jumped in the shower, Randy called Miranda, woke up Tyler and we were on the road in a half hour. We drove the 40 minutes to Thunderbird Banner and got there just in time to pray with everyone before Nicole was wheeled into surgery. Thank God Shawn called when he did, or an hour later we would have had everything set out and our driveway filled with customers. Whew!

Shortly after the twins were delivered at 7:18am ~ Shawn delivered the good news ~ along with the goods! ha! And this was our first glimpse at Jonah & Nathan. I can't tell you how ecstatic we were! Look at them! They are perfect and healthy and BIG!

Jonah was 5# 11oz. ~ Nathan was 4# 14oz.

And this was my first close-up of their sweet little faces and perfectly pink bodies. Oh my!

Jonah, on the left, is almost a pound bigger than Nathan, so it's been easy to tell them apart... so far. Yes, they're identical. So once Nathan catches up, it's going to be rather confusing. ha!

Every single birth is a miracle, but everything about these babies is pretty miraculous! 

Do you remember me sharing about how we found out about the twins, in the blog post about events that you vividly remember "where were you when you heard...". Here's their story ~

My twin grand-babies (2011) ~ how could I forget the day I heard that my son and daughter-in-law were expecting TWINS! Randy & I were at a Marriage Retreat up north and we had decided not to go out to dinner with the rest of the teaching team. We were at a new location and wanted to be on hand in case any of the couples arrived early. I will never forget, we were sitting out on this gorgeous deck overlooking this breathtaking scenery, when Randy's cell phone goes off. Mind you, in all the years of Marriage Retreats, this was going to be the first retreat that we would have cell phone coverage and would need to remind the couples that cell phones were off limit. So needless to say, I was a little startled to hear Randy's phone go off. He answered and immediately handed me the phone. It was Shawn, and he said Nicole had something to tell me... and she says ~
"We have something to tell you... we're pregnant... and we got pregnant with an IUD... and it will need to be surgically removed... and when I had an ultrasound to determine the location of the IUD, they saw that it was twins."
Oh my gosh! I could barely comprehend what I had just heard. I mean, that's a lot to hear! But I found myself saying out loud "This is totally a God thing! These babies are undeniably gifts from God!" And I was instantly flooded with peace and a whole lot of tears.

And now they're here! Our precious gifts from God are here and we're so grateful!

The next day on Sunday, April 22nd, we went back to the hospital with the yellow blanket.

The very yellow blanket that my husband Randy was swaddled in 58 years ago...

... and that our son Shawn was swaddled in almost 30 years ago.

You're looking at three generations that were wrapped in the yellow blanket.

Makes me cry every time I look at this.

That's me ~ Jonah & Nathan's overjoyed Mimi ~ and the yellow blanket heirloom.

I also blogged about the yellow blanket when each of our three kids, and then Emolyn & Elsie, came home from the hospital wrapped in the yellow blanket.

You can click HERE and HERE for those stories.

And for those of you on facebook ~ you can click HERE for more photos of the twins birth day.

And my yard sale is now this Saturday ~ with temps in the low 80's. Yes!