The Party of Twins

The first twins in our family turned two this week. These precious little girls, Emma Grace and Allison McKenna are as different as can be.  Emma has olive skin and straight dark brown hair and gets excited about everything. She’s a mini version of her mom. Allison has fair skin and strawberry blonde hair like her Dad and stands back to observe a minute before plunging ahead.

The birthday party guests were all from the Mothers of Multiples club where the young mothers share support, advice, children’s clothes, toys and equipment. The families arrived all at once with hugs all around between the Moms. The toddlers ran to the back yard on this unseasonably warm day, even for Texas.  One little boy and his sister each wore a small backpack full of extra clothes and diapers!

I sat in the shade and matched up the twins with their mothers. The two sets of boys, both identical were easy to spot, even the set without matching shirts.  Emma and Allison were the only set of girl twins there. The other four sets were boy-girl twins. Except for a few helpful siblings, no one playing outside was more than 3 years old. Thus they all touched base with Mom frequently.

Because of the Mothers of Multiples playgroups, they were comfortable with each other. The sundress-clad girls were truly dainty and only aggressive when a boy pushed past them in the line to ride down the small plastic slide.  One boy of about 3 years, perhaps a future engineer, grabbed hold of the slide and turned it 90 degrees so that it faced the back fence instead of the barbeque grill. No fuss from anyone about this, they just adjusted to the new position and continued to climb up the little ladder and slide down with great joy. The boys attacked the Piñata—and the hot dogs—with more determination than the girls.

I was impressed by the uniqueness of each child in this gathering of twins.  God created each of us different, even identical twins whose differences were evident in these toddlers. But this playful scene emphasized how much care God takes to create us similar but yet so unique.

As these toddlers grow up, I pray they will realize, as Saint Augustine wrote, “God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”

(© 2013 Nancy H C Ward)