Science has long studied the miracle of twins. Interestingly, analyzing the lives of identical twins can sometimes give us insight into how of much our development is due to our environment, and how much can be credited to our genes.
Stories of identical twins separated at birth who painted their house the same color and have the same breed of dog can remind us that nature and our genetic make up may amazingly be planning more details in our lives then we think.
Where is the line drawn? Sometimes it can be hard to tell, but few tales are quite so obvious as that of American sisters, Sarah Mariuz and Leah Rodgers.
Sarah and Leah are identical twins who grew up together but without any prior planning, unknowingly became pregnant at the same time. The sisters then went on to deliver babies in different states, in their respective time zones, at the exact same minute.
Choice? Sounds like genetic fate to me.
A report on today.com tells of how it all started. Leah, 35, now of Denver, Colorado, and Sarah, now of La Jolla, California brought their families together to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Each thought they’d have their own unique announcement to make, and neither knew the other was expecting. But Leah had a hunch something was up.
“She (Sarah) showed up to my front door and…and I had this crazy twin intuition — I call it my ‘twintuition,'” Rodgers told TODAY. “And I knew she was pregnant, too.”
The sisters ended up making birth announcements at the same time, to their own shock and that of their families.
With their due dates just four days apart, it seemed possible but still rather unlikely that their babies would come into the world at the same time. Really, what were the odds?
But when both sisters went into labor around the same time, nature proved its power. On June 30th, 2016, Leah gave birth to a baby boy at 1:18 am in Colorado, and exactly an hour later Sarah gave birth to his cousin, a girl, at….1:18 am California time.
Leah is reported to attribute what can be seen as nature’s way or simply coincidence as the special connection she’s had with her sister over the years.
Their spouses? Excited and in awe.
For more intriguing stories about the bonds and lives of twins, check out this detailed report covered by the New York Times on two sets of twin brothers form Bogota, Colombia.
Each pair had one brother accidentally swapped into each the other’s family in a mistake made at the hospital at birth. One group of brothers began a life of poverty in the countryside, and the other with opportunity in the city. Both swapped brothers felt somehow different from their families all along, but never knew why.
These nine stories of identical twins separated at birth in the U.S and Britain also reveal a lot about humans. Among others, the report includes the story of twin males born in Ohio in the 1940s who were both married twice: first to women named Linda, and then for a second time to women named Betty. Both also had sons named James Allen.
Check it out here.
Photo credit: Olga Yatsenko/Shutterstock
