Perfect Parkers

Entry 1 - Point of View : Eleanor Parker (Mom) 

Parker Family Story

"Love doesn't divide, it multiplies."

Fifteen years ago, at the young age of 21, I gave birth to my incredible first born child, Landen Jude Parker. The pregnancy and birth of Landen went so smoothly, for the most part, that I was excited to go through the process again.

The moment Landen was born Alex, my amazing husband, and I made the decision that we wanted to keep expanding our little family.

Less than a year later, Landen was "given" a best friend for eternity that we named Caid Grant Parker. Carrying and delivering Caid went smoother than it did with Landen. He did not cause me much problems for the whole nine months he was rapidly growing in my stomach. When it came to delivering him, he was out with only one push.

Although we had two adorable boys, something in Alex and I told us that it was not our time to stop. Call us crazy, but we truly believed that all the decisions we made were the right ones, for us.

The next pregnancy was different from the first two. In the first trimester, we were notified by our phenomenal doctor, the same one that delivered Landen and Caid, that there was not one baby in my stomach. There were two! The flood of different emotions you get when you hear something like that is indescribable. We were ecstatic because the amount of kids we had was going to double, but we were also majorly shocked since the original plan only involved one baby. Alex and I always knew in the back of our minds that there was a possibility that I could have multiples, because multiples were a trend in both of our families.

After eight grueling months of pain, rest, and doctor visits the miracle twins were born only four weeks premature; resulting in them having to stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for seven long, emotional days. Alexander and my schedule consisted of us getting up at three in the morning to go to the hospital, and driving back home at eleven. Was it hard, you may ask us. The answer to that would be no, and yes. There was not a doubt in our minds that it would all be worth it in the end, but it was also hard to keep going throughout our day knowing that our babies were suffering.

Even though, greatmom and greatdad (grandma and pa) lived two hours away they courageously stepped in and took Landen and Caid for my last month of pregnancy with the twins.

Gage Maddox Parker and Grey Zackery Parker met their two brothers three days after they got home. Their older brothers, at only one and two, could have cared less for the new edition to the family when we first brought them home. But, they obviously warmed up to the idea soon.

After three pregnancy filled years, we decided to settle down for a while with our four boys. Although, we knew we had not quite reached the child finish line yet.

At that time we lived comfortably in a cozy house in Charleston, West Virginia. The house was one of the newest in the neighborhood, so it was a steal. It had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. With a wrap around porch and a screened porch that allowed us to view our breathtaking 3 acres, the house was perfect for us at that moment. The guest house that we now own was actually built to resemble our lovely, first house.

Both of us coming from highly prosperous families, each used a part of our inheritance to set aside in a bank account for our future family. We shared the dream of eventually having a lavish house built for our kids, just like both of our parents did for us.

With the tremendous support and favors from our extremely generous friends and family, Alex and I were able to graduate college when we were 25.

The next years involved us meeting new people, getting involved with our community, and trying to create a vivid future for our kids. These years also had many birthdays, firsts, and adventures packed into them.