The Odom Quads Zoey Lyla Maya Arya

Danielle Thrasher is organizing this fundraiser.

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On March 4th, 2017, we found out we were expecting! After two long and emotional years, finally God has answered our prayers! We were so excited after seeing that little plus sign after all the negative ones we’ve suffered through. We were going to be PARENTS! How exciting! I experienced some lower abdominal discomfort two weeks later and had to go in for an emergency ultrasound. The doctor told us we could possibly be carrying twins! TWINS! My goodness! Two babies, two! My doctor wanted to see us the following week to do a checkup. We went through the ultrasound again only to find out that we were expecting TRIPLETS! Oh my! We were in shock and excited all at once. How were we ever going to be able to raise three precious babies God has blessed us with? After a couple of weeks of praying and praying, we were finally able to feel confident and ready to tackle this amazing journey God had started for us. The doctor told us to keep the triplets quiet for now to make sure things worked out okay. We followed the doctor’s orders and just announced that we were expecting. Everything seemed to be going well with the babies and myself.

At my three months visit to the doctor, we had our routine ultrasound. As we were in the room, the ultrasound technician looked confused. I asked her what was wrong and she stated to us “I hate to tell you this but you are carrying FOUR babies”. WHAT?! Four?! I turned to Joseph and stammered “How are we going to do this?”. His response was so quick that I felt so reassured. “What’s one more baby, honey? We will do this together!”

We heard all four heartbeats and even seen them move and wave. How exciting! We had a check-up with my OB/GYN directly after the ultrasound. The doctor seemed nervous and anxious. He wanted us to meet the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Doctors upstairs right away. As we took the elevators to the office, we were silent. As we were introduced to the doctor, it seemed like something was wrong. The doctor went right into doing an ultrasound to confirm that there were indeed four babies. The next 20 minutes were the longest of my life. She went right into telling us that the average pregnancy for quadruplets is 24-26 weeks and that the babies would have a 40% chance of survival. She kept telling us statistics that her medical book had taught her and then she hit us with a brick. “We would like to offer a selective reduction to ensure the babies and you have a healthy pregnancy. The doctor who performs the procedure will push for reducing down to twins and his office is in Chicago Illinois. He will do an amniocentesis to determine which baby has a chromosomal defect and that will help with the reduction process. Since you are right at 13 weeks, the procedure needs to be scheduled as soon as possible. What would you like to do?”

Wait what?! Reduce my babies?! How could I ever do that? As tears flowed down my face, the doctor left us to be alone. Joseph grabbed me up and hugged me as I bawled and bawled. I kept telling him I could never do this, that this is wrong. When the doctor came in the room, Joseph asked to go ahead and schedule the amniocentesis but we still weren’t sure what we were going to do. We needed to go home and pray for answers. That ride home was long and dreary. I prayed all night and continued for the rest of the week. The doctor’s office called and told me that the consultation was going to be covered by my insurance just not the lab work. They were working on having the insurance company make an exception. That night I told Joseph I couldn’t do this and he agreed. The next day I called the doctor’s office to tell them that we didn’t want to proceed with the procedure and we have decided to keep all four healthy, growing babies. The nurse questioned me several times and I didn’t back down. We were ready to let God take charge. That Sunday, I traveled to my church in Ohio and asked to be prayed for. The preacher told me that God has my babies in his hands and not to worry. Amen! The next week I experienced some bleeding and went in for an ultrasound to check things out. The four babies were healthy and moving and growing just fine. My doctor and I have discussed bedrest and we both know it’s coming up very soon.

My job doesn’t provide paid pregnancy leave or short-term disability. Joseph will be the sole provider for us. I’ve applied for government assistance and have been denied. I’m a full-time student, work a full-time job, and am carrying quadruplets. We live in a small apartment and just took out a loan for a SUV that only supports three car seats. I have doctor’s appointments every other week and I have to take the day off work for these appointments. Things are adding up quickly and we don’t know what God has in store for us. We never imagined that we would be carrying quadruplets as they are extremely rare. God has blessed us and we just want to make sure these precious babies have everything that they will need. I am currently four months pregnant and the babies and I are in great health. It is a very stressful time when we sit down and think about everything we will need and don’t know how we are going to get them. We realize that the babies will spend some time in the NICU and are mentally preparing ourselves for this. We take it one day at a time and continue to have good spirits. I am praying that I make it to 30 weeks and the babies will have a great life. We are asking for support from our community, friends, and family as we embark on this amazing journey through life. God bless!