Two, Daddy! Two! We only ordered one!
“What do these stones mean, Mom?”
My mother carried me for 9 months and did not know that I was there. Sure, she felt the baby kick and move. It wasn't that she didn’t know she was pregnant and thought she had a kidney stone and ended up with a baby. 
No, no. She knew she was pregnant. In fact, she was VERY pregnant.
It’s just that when the baby kicked and moved, she thought it was just that - the bab-y (singular, as in ONE baby), not the bab-ies (plural, meaning TWO babies). It wasn’t until after my sister Wendy was born that the doctor figured out what others may have been suspecting; there was another baby in there. That was me. Baby Girl B. When Daddy told my brother Jeffery that he had two new baby sisters, he said, “Two daddy! Two! We only ordered one!”
Even though a twin birth was unexpected, we were not unwanted. I know what you are thinking; How did she NOT know she was carrying twins? Maybe she suspected it, but it was “back in the day” before ultrasounds were easily available for each pregnancy.
Doing the only thing they knew to do, Mom and Dad quickly changed gears and scrambled to pull things together for two babies instead of one. I’ve been told by my aunts and my grandma, that my mom nursed both of us at the same time! She propped us on pillows on both sides of her. That never ceases to amaze me. Kudos to you mom’s of twins everywhere, regardless of how you managed to feed your babies.
Somehow, a rhythm was established and life continued on. Our extended family pitched in to help where they could. We were loved and doted on. The idea of twins was something special and people fussed over the two identical baby girls.
They had to develop tricks to remind themselves who was Wendy and who was Wanda. Some were hopeless and stopped trying, “So which twin are you? Wendy or Wanda?” I was forever being called Wendy; so often that I stopped correcting people.
When we started school, we were in the same kindergarten class. Thankfully, by first grade in the local elementary school, we were placed into separate classrooms where we could be known as an individual. MY teacher was Miss Davis. Her teacher was Mrs. Reed. We still rode the bus together and played together at recess. We had many of the same friends, but we knew instinctively that we would always be each others BFF.
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| Friends forever: Wendy (L) and Wanda (R) |
I thank God that he has created ME, Wanda, as an individual, in my mother's’ womb. Sure, Wendy was in the womb right next to me, but I was there too. He saw me. He knew I was there, even if the doctor didn’t. God knit me together.
“What do these stones mean, Mom?”
From the beginning of your life,
from your conception,
even when you were unknown to your parents...
God saw you.
He created you; knit you together.
You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
His works are wonderful.
I know that full well.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:13-16
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