Mackenzie, Macey, and Madeline have a lot to celebrate.
The girls, two of which were formerly conjoined twins, just turned 18!
In addition to their birthdays, the triplets can cheers to all the love in their lives. These girls have survived a lot!
The triplets were born in December 2002 at just over 2 pounds each.
Their biological mother suffered from addiction and never saw a doctor or had a prenatal check-up.
So, it was quite a surprise when it was discovered that Macey and Mackenzie were conjoined at the pelvis and shared a third leg.
The biological mother was unable to care for the triplets and placed them up for adoption.
That’s when two angels came into the picture.
Darla Keller and Jeff Garrison of Iowa had three sons of their own. They also had experience with fostering neglected and special needs children.
But they wanted to make the triplets an official part of their family and adopted them.
Mom Darla recalls that when the opportunity to adopt triplets, two of which were conjoined, they knew they just couldn’t let the opportunity to care for them slip away.
The following year, Macey and Mackenzie had to undergo their separation surgery.
The fact that their intestines were entwined made the 24-hour surgery a little risky.
The girls did well in surgery but had to adjust to life with one leg and one prosthetic leg each.
Over the years the girls had to have additional surgeries.
Most recently, they each had a spinal surgery to correct a significant case of scoliosis.
“It was a really huge surgery. They put rods… all the way down their thoracic spine, from their neck to the small of their back. There were 10 vertebrae they fused,” Darla told People. “That recovery was difficult.”
Darla said the surgeries presented a stressful time for the family but that’s in the past.
“They’re doing well now. They each got released to be back to normal and they’re not in pain anymore like they were,” Darla explains.
In addition to that newfound comfort, the girls are looking forward to graduating high school next year and then attending college.
Mackenzie is interested in agriculture and plant anatomy, Macey loves working with children and is thinking about teaching kindergarten, and Madeline is hoping to work with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients as a nurse, according to Little Things.
“That’s going to be our focus in 2021: getting graduated and getting scholarships because they all want to go to college,” says Darla. “As parents, we have three other boys, so we haven’t been able to save a ton of money.”
The girls are hoping to be eligible for academic scholarships and are seeking those out.
And that should be hard on account of how hard they work in school. In the meantime, the family is preparing for Christmas.
“We’ll be home [for Christmas], but we started a tradition last year: The girls wanted to do name draws. We didn’t buy presents for everybody, we just did a name draw within our family, and so they requested we do that again this year,” Darla explained.
“They’re just very giving little girls, so they want to buy presents. And now they’re working so they all have money and they think spending money is fun. They’re very generous.”
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