Couple share hope, despite loss of their septuplets
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Seven babies. A Charlotte couple was shocked to learn about their pregnancy. Their doctors were terrified.
They are as all-American as it gets, Lindsey and Steve Justice. They were college athletes who met at Wake Forest in Winston-Salem.
Steve Justice remembers the first time he saw Lindsey: "I kind of noticed her, but she didn't really notice me."
She was a soccer player; he played football, so good that he went on to play in the NFL with Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts, and even spent some time as a Carolina Panther.
"We're best friends, we're best buds," they say in unison while sitting on their living room couch.
Married for five years, the pair's life together revolves around their faith and their family: Hannah, the 4-year old doe-eyed daddy's girl, and Hope, the 2-year-old who looks just like her mom.
The couple wanted more feet to add to a new family photo, and after nine months of trying for a third child, learned Lindsey Justice has polycystic ovary syndrome, which can make it difficult to conceive.
"Every month seemed like 10 years. Any woman who goes through infertility knows that," she said.
She took fertility drugs and the couple considered adoption.
"It's just emotionally draining; its hard, and for me to see her going through it ... it's hard for me to watch her go through it," her husband said.
But then a surprise came: For Steve's 30th birthday, Lindsey handed him a gift — her positive pregnancy test.
"From that point on it was just kind of a wild ride."
At the six-week ultrasound, the doctor was concerned. He thought Lindsey could be carrying as many as six babies, and asked the couple about what's called selective reduction, terminating some of the pregnancies to help give the others a better chance at survival.
"Steve and I didn't even have to look at each other," she said. "That was just not going to be an option."
The surprises kept coming. The eight-week ultrasound showed there were, in fact, seven babies.
"We knew at that point, reaffirmed, that this was from God. It's not in our hands. It was a miracle, just a miracle. We were humbled to be counted worthy, although we're very unworthy to carry such a responsibility."
The couple documented the pregnancy, taking home videos almost daily. They knew they had to get to 23 weeks for the babies to have a chance.
They named them with the first letter of each baby's name together spelling Messiah.
At 12 weeks they learned one baby had died, a boy name Isaac.
At 16 weeks came yet another shocker.
"We were kind of joking they're all gonna be girls," Steve Justice said laughing. "And she did like a quick … and I was like are you kidding me? And she goes, 'they're all girls.'"
Each Sunday the family celebrated as the pregnancy continued, but in week 21 contractions began.
The couple rushed to the hospital where Lindsey gave birth to the baby they named Mercy.
"We said goodbye to Mercy, and I was laying on that table for two hours trying to do everything I could in my power, which was nothing, to relax and stop having contractions, but it wasn't God's will," Lindsey Justice said.
It took just 10 minutes for her to give birth to the other five babies.
"She was holding three of them on her chest and I was getting the next two and I just wanted it stopped. I wanted them to stay in there, " Steve remembers. "I was sobbing and you're like, can you just stop it?"
The babies survived about two hours.
"And what I would give to nurse them, to hold them, to rock them to sleep, to dress them. I want to be their mom, I want them to be here, you know. But that wasn't God's will."
Both say they don't think the full weight of the loss has hit them.
"We don't have strength right now, we are broken, we are in deep mourning. We held each one of our six girls and said goodbye to them. They were all living. They all have birth certificates, they all have a first name, a middle name, and a last name."
They have the blankets that each baby was wrapped in on their bed; they each pick a different one to sleep with every night.
And there are other mementos: cherished photographs, including a picture with all the babies' feet.
"It hit me that this was the only time I would ever dress them, 'cause that's what I love, that's what a mama does," Lindsey Justice said. "So I got to dress them once and for all."
Lindsey and Steve Justice wanted to tell their story because they want people to know despite all they have been through, they are hopeful about the future. They want people to know there can be hope amid great sorrow.
They will hold a celebration of life in honor of the lost babies Oct. 18.
To learn more about their journey, visit blog:www.jacojustice.blogspot.com, password: HisGlory.