Our Twin Sons - Their Short-but-Eventful Life Story

Our sons, Mickey and Jamie, were born on August 11, 2017 at Kiev City Maternity Hospital No. 1, or Київський міський пологовий будинок №1 for those of you who think you can compare English to Ukrainian and have it make any sort of sense.  It was one of the most exciting but also one of the strangest days of my life, and I'm sure my wife would agree.

We celebrated that evening, but the next day things took a turn for the worse.  Mickey started aspirating and it turned out that he was born with pneumonia.  He had to be intubated, and he remained in an incubator for about a week.  The only person who could make any contact with him was Mommy.  It was an incredibly difficult and terrifying ordeal.

He got better and we were released two weeks after they were born.  We took them to our AirBnB apartment in downtown Kiev where we stayed for another week.  We spent that week trying to push all the red tape out of the way to get them home.  It was no small task, but we did it and flew them back to California on September 1.

Since then, the fellers have been working through colic, traveling more than most newborns and getting used to their new surroundings.  When not screaming, "The Scream Team" as we've come to know them is a happy pair of boys, smiling often and showing more and more personality.  They love their big sister, their rubber giraffes and feeding time.