This is the story of our own children. It is a story with a happy ending.
A story about children who fought for their lives. In just a few days it will be four years since they were born three and a half months early in the 24th week of pregnancy. Their arrival in the world was unexpected and very complicated. Emma weighed 1,49 lb, Matyáš 1,54 lb. They spent 103 days in an incubator in the neonatal centre. I’ve read through the medical reports and should write about everything they went through - the degree of retinopathy and the bleeding in the brain that Matyáš had, the countless transfusions they received and how long they were on a ventilator. But all of a sudden I don’t feel like writing about any of this. Just like when I couldn’t read similar stories when we didn’t know what to expect for the twins and how they would develop. It simply didn’t help me. Instead, I want to write about children that go to preschool today, children who sometimes misbehave, sing songs, fight over toys and to whom I wish sweet dreams to at night as they lie in their beds.
We’ve come a long way. When we brought the twins home, they weighed barely 4,4 libras. They always slept in three-hour stretches, as they had learned in the incubator. At first they drank only 15-20 ml before becoming exhausted. For nearly two years we did reflexlocomotion exercises four times a day and were always going to see a doctor - eyes, ears, nephrology, neurology, rehabilitation. The twins started to walk when they were two.
Today they are healthy and happy children. They exercise at the Sokol sports centre, dance, ride tricycles, swim, draw and love fairy tales - seemingly ordinary things for someone who didn’t spend the first months of their life attached to tubes in an incubator. For someone who doesn’t know the warning of a breathing monitor detecting a problem. And yet, these are huge things for us who had slim hopes at the beginning that our children would have a happy and fulfilling life. Little Emma has a scar on her ankle from the cannula. I hope this is the only reminder of her struggle to live. Every day with them, every smile, every fleeting kiss is a miracle.
‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. Miracles occur, and we should listen to life’s mysteries’.