Twins’ lives ‘a story of miracles’

The odds were against them from the start.

Statistically, twins Grace and Faith Massingale should never have been born, much less survived to see their first birthdays.

At their parents’ home this week, however, the birthday party favors shared space with canisters of oxygen, which the year-old girls still use at night to help them thrive.

Lance and Jennifer Massingale are throwing a party for friends and family members who plan to gather Saturday to celebrate the lives of their daughters, who were born a week earlier than doctors expect premature babies to make it.

“Yeah, it’s a story of miracles,” Jennifer said.

The story about the big-cheeked, redheaded fraternal twins begins long before they were born.

Lance Massingale, now age 35, was 18 when he was diagnosed with a cancer called Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Before

undergoing chemotherapy and radiation, Massingale decided to freeze some of his sperm in hopes of someday having children.

That day arrived when he and Jennifer were married, had good medical insurance and decided to try for kids. The process of in vitro fertilization was complicated when Jennifer, now age 26, had to have cystic fibroid tumors removed from her uterus.

In April of 2007, the couple learned they were expecting twins.

“It was incredible news,” Jennifer said. “Going through this, we trusted God and believed he had a plan for us.”

At 20 weeks into the pregnancy, the Massingales found out their twins were girls.

“We wanted biblical names, but most didn’t reflect how blessed we felt to even have the opportunity to have kids,” said Lance, who drives a delivery truck for Dreyer’s Ice Cream. “So Grace and Faith were more fitting.”

Five and a half months into the pregnancy, the Massingales’ lives changed again.

On the youth ministry team at Lake Country Baptist Church in Lake Stevens, the couple was at church preparing last August for a youth group camping trip.

“Everybody was reminded to go pee before we left. I went to the restroom, too, and found I was bleeding and going into labor,” Jennifer said.

At Providence Everett Medical Center, the Massingales were told that at that point in the gestation, the unborn twins had a less than 5 percent chance of survival.

“It was scary, but there was no question in our minds that we would try to keep going,” Jennifer said.

Jennifer was transferred to the University of Washington Medical Center and her labor was stopped. She spent nine days, head down, in bed before labor began again.

Grace Deanna was born early on the morning of Aug. 15, 2007, weighing in at 1 pound, 4 ounces.

Most statistics show that only about a third of babies survive premature birth at 23 weeks, said Dr. Christine Gleason, head of neonatology and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington. With aggressive therapy, the survival rates of premature babies improve, Gleason said.

Such aggressive therapy was prescribed for Grace. In the meantime, Faith’s birth was delayed for another two days.

“Every day makes a difference at that point,” Gleason said. “If one baby comes out, you do what you can to keep the other inside (the womb.)”

Faith MerryAnn was born Aug. 17, weighing 1 pound, 3 ounces.

Needing multiple surgeries and special care, the babies were transferred to Children’s Hospital, where the family virtually lived for the next five months.

Grace and Faith faced a litany of problems, many of them life-threatening and most of them common to premature birth.

Lance and Jennifer Massingale never gave up hope, said Kristen Predovich, now a friend of the Massingale family and a registered nurse at Children’s when the family was there.

“The girls were quite sick several times, but Lance and Jennie are amazing, courageous parents,” Predovich said. “Though it’s been a roller-coaster ride, they have never, not once, given up on their girls. They never lost their faith and this is very inspiring to me.”

The twins were discharged from the hospital in January, but they continue to receive home therapy care from Providence Medical Center and regular checkups at Children’s Hospital.

To other families struggling with medical issues, the Massingales advise that it’s better not to research beyond of the medical problem at hand. It’s essential, too, to have a support group.

For the couple, their support group includes people from church and their mothers, Ann Fowler of Marysville and Virginia Seitz of Lake Stevens.

It also includes each other.

“We’re not dwelling on the tough stuff, but when I’ve been weak, Jennie encourages me,” Lance said.

The tough stuff includes the recent revelation that Faith is deaf and Grace is likely to have moderate hearing loss.

“Learning that Faith is deaf was a blow, but now we’re excited now about learning sign language,” Jennifer said.

Despite the hardships and the problems the girls may yet face, the Massingales are still looking forward to Saturday’s first birthday party.

“Even when they are tired and hungry, the girls never get fussy,” Jennifer said. “They are a joy and they enrich our lives so much.”

While Jennifer made faces to encourage a smile from Faith, Lance bounced Grace on his knee.

“We’re just glad for every day, aren’t we, Grace?” he said.