“We took a lot of walks around the neighborhood, because that seemed to calm everyone down (and contain them in a wagon for 30 minutes!),” Sara says. “There were lots of doctor appointments as we got them established with the specialists they needed. There were plenty of days where we just tried to survive from one meal to the next, or from naptime to bedtime!” 

But survive they did, somehow. Even when Ethan and Avery, the oldest two Lemin kids, moved away to college. Even when Ian and Sara sold their house and moved to a new neighborhood. Even when Connor had four surgeries and 19 sets of leg casts in his first year home. 

To Sara’s surprise, Connor and Cole didn’t merely survive, either. The now four-and-a-half and five-year-olds seemed to fit in with their new parents and siblings like they had been there all along, broken English notwithstanding.