Call It What You Will

epiphany (noun) - 1. the manifestation of a supernatural or divine reality; 2. any moment of great or sudden revelation; 3. Oh, crap.

Shelby and Jordan, Christmas 2010, who posed like that

So, you're 20, pregnant, and the Christmas holidays have just passed. You didn't have any money to buy both presents for your family and presents for the other half of your "dynamic duo." The holidays were kind of crappy because, well, you're pregnant and apparently huge according to anyone with an opinion. So you eat a few more cookies.

At your next doctor's visit on January 6, a nurse filled in all the information and told you that your weight gain was a whopping seven pounds. She even congratulates you on taking it easy on the cookies during a stressful eating period. But you know better . . . she subtracted wrong. It won't be long until she realizes her mistake; that was 17 pounds. So much for taking it easy

Seventeen pounds turns out to be a lot when you are pregnant. It sets off all sorts of warning bells and worried looks. And in twenty minutes, your life takes an even more bizarre turn. Seventeen pounds was an epiphany in every sense of the word. Twins: the manifestation of a divine reality; a moment of great revelation; oh, crap.

I count very few days during the year as truly special, but January 6 is one of those days. We never really celebrated the Epiphany in our house, but usually, it signified the end of the Christmas season. Mom had us take down the lights and the decorations, and we gave the Christmas carols one last hurrah before they were packed away for a ten months. Now, it reminds me all over again that sometimes things do work out but not without a lot of hard work and risk on your part. It makes me sit up and take notice about the world around me, especially how proud I am of my daughters because they were worth a lot of hard work and risk on my part. It puts a smile on my face knowing that I got something right.

- Jill