I wish people'd see my children in the same fashion as I do. I don't see their disabilities: I see my children.
I have six: quadruplets (aged six) and twins (three years old). Three boys, three girls (or as I say, 3 and 3). They are my world, my life, my everything!
My children are named in order of appearance: quadruplets Emily Sue, Ethan Ryan, Elizabeth Rene', and Eric Allen. The twins, William Harold and Willow Grace. They are beautiful!
The twins look just alike, even though one's a boy and the other's a girl. The quads, meanwhile, don't look anything alike. Two have red hair (taken from my side of the family: my daddy had flame red hair before he went grey) and blue eyes (again, from daddy), one has brown hair and grey eyes, and the remaining child has jet-black hair and black eyes (taken from Jon's side of the family).
Jon's my husband.
Sometimes people think the quads are adopted, but they're not. I should know: I gave birth to them all!
My name is Nanette Terwilliger. I live in Dalton, Georgia, with Jon. We've been married nine years. We didn't plan on having kids, let alone twins or quadruplets. It just...happened.
And we're glad it did. We couldn't be any happier than we are right now.
The children are discovering the world; each has his or her own distinct personality that sets one apart from the other. Even though some have disabilities, they are as capable as their non-disabled brother and sisters.
Ethan has cerebral palsy and nastigmus (jerky eye movements), resulting from too much oxygen at birth. Willow and William have developmental delays. At the age of three, they are still not toilet trained, talking, or walking, though they are on the verge of accomplishing these tasks.
I'll be so glad when they do.
Willow, William, and Ethan all go to speech, physical, and occupational therapy twice weekly. The others are in school during this time. This way, they can have some semblance of a normal life, get away from their disabled brothers and sister, if only for a little while. Emily, Elizabeth and Eric love them, but they need time away, too.
Ethan can walk; he just uses assistance. He uses a wheeled walker for now (or a wheelchair for longer distances), but he may end up graduating to forearm crutches if he keeps up the pace he's currently at. He's amazing to watch, and even more amazing to hear!
He may be one of our smallest members of the clan, but he makes up for it in sheer volume and noise; his noise level could easily rival that of a jet airplane screaming overhead!! LOL
While I stay home with the kids, Jon works three jobs to try to support our needs. Raising a family like ours is incredibly expensive; it's only getting more difficult to keep up with the Joneses as prices continually go on the upsurge (although in the past month, gas prices have mercifully fallen. Let's hope food follows suit!).
Poor Jon's paychecks don't last long after we pay the bills and get needed groceries or necessities!
Right now the biggest problem I face is looks of pity from people whenever they see our disabled children. I want them to see them as they really are, see their accomplishments, see how beautiful they are, instead of just focusing entirely on what they can't do, or their disabilities in general.
It's like they think the disability's more important than the child when it's the opposite. I'm trying to put the child first. It's a never ending battle, one I fight every day, and I am getting sick and tired of it already!!
Well, I have to take William and Willow to their therapy appointments; I'll try to be back in time for the others to return home from school. Ethan's is a bit later; try to schedule their therapies for around the same time, but it doesn't always work out.
I will write in here again with more stories about my family. Until then, this is Nanette Terwilliger signing off! God bless!
~Nanette. :)
