The Double Portion

Today is Eden and Lily's fourth birthday.
All kinds of stories surround these pair. Here are some :

• The vision of cherries I recieved in prayer when I knew I was pregnant but had no idea of twins.
• The fact that I thought I had killed my mum when I told her over the phone that I was carrying two. That was a laugh - she went utterly silent and I thought she had had a heart attack and died.
  
• The struggle of carrying them when the docs mentioned twin transference (big problem) and then genetic growth disorders (bigger problem) to the point where the obstetrician finally mentioned "abnormalities incompatible with life" and then offered to terminate the smallest (Lily).
  

It was not the easiest or happiest of pregnancies. Thank God for the vision of perfect cherries I had when only six weeks pregnant. I hung all my faith on that, stood on it when things got very shaky indeed. And then there they were, six weeks early, tiny, and made up equal parts swansdown and whipcord - tough and kicking, so small and so vital, so vulnerable but so very strong too. They were whisked away to intensive care (Lily weighed only a little more than a bag of sugar and fitted into my double cupped hands, Eden weighed about the same as two bags of sugar and looked huge by comparison but she too was pitifully small). They stayed in the special care unit for a month in incubators and I was allowed to take them out for a cuddle and a feed and then I had to put them back quickly before they got cold. They felt like dolls I was sometimes allowed to play with. This continued until they had reached the magic weight of five pounds when they were allowed home, just in time for Christmas. Tiny but perfect and wonderfully strong and healthy. This they still are and will remain so all their lives.
I still look at them and catch myself thinking in astonishment "Twins!" and Rose too, as beautiful a big sister that you could find.

My cup runneth over. Happy Birthday babies.