When you find out your unexpectedly pregnant, it can be an overwhelming moment. Find out your unexpectedly pregnant with triplets and it can be downright hard to handle. Find out you’re having triplets and knowing that you have cystic fibrosis, a chronic condition that leaves you fighting for every breath, and most people would tell you to terminate the pregnancy and preserve your health and your life. And Kandace Smith was told just that, but she refused.
Instead Kandace moved forward with the pregnancy, taking it easy and doing everything she could to carry the babies to as close to full term as possible. She knew the risks, yes, but she also wanted to give her babies a chance and to allow herself the opportunity to have children and love them, something she didn’t think was even possible before.
Kandace spent half of her pregnancy in the hospital with doctors working to keep her lung function up, but by 28 1/2 weeks the pregnancy proved to be too much. Her three little girls were delivered by C-section and Kandace found out that they were identical triplets, 200 million to one odds. They each weighed about two pounds and while the doctors are worried about short and long-term disabilities for the girls, so far they are doing well. Not one of them needed a ventilator.
Some might call her selfish. I call her strong. I call her resilient. I call her a loving mother who gave her three girls a chance to live with no second thought to the damage the pregnancy might cause to her own body. She calls it the fight of her life, and says she would die for her daughters. I think she proved that. And as for raising children who may have special needs, Kandace knows first hand what it’s like to struggle with a disability, so who better to raise them? I pray for a cure to arrive quickly for cystic fibrosis and for Kandace to get the chance to love those girls for years to come.