When Erica and I decided to have kids again after the long journey of Kennady’s infancy, our first thought was…will our next kid or kids be like Kennady?  Of course, the key factor we were considering was her disability.   Will they be born like her?

Little did we know that 10 years later we would value ‘likeness’ more than almost anything.

Two years after Kennady was born, Erica gave birth to Jude Alen and then 2 years later came Avery Harrison.  Both boys with normal boy brains.  This meant that they would not be ‘like’ Kennady.  Instead, they would be ‘normal’ and a separation would begin between them and their sister.  The separation would grow stronger and stronger as they grew up because they would cross all the developmental milestones and with each one, leave their sister’s commonality.  We are not sure how much Kennady knows about her differences.  In fact, we don’t think she knows a whole lot about it.  However, the boys sense their differences from their sister.  The only thing that has kept them similar is their toes.  That is right. Toes.

They all three inherited ‘twin’ toes from my mom’s family.

top toes are ‘twin’ (connected more than other ones)

That was until last week.

As many of you know, our 2 boys suffer from severe food allergies.  In fact, if either eats eggs, he will break out in severe welts, breathing will be restricted, etc.  Jude is also allergic to wheat, soy, and nuts.  This has defined a huge part of their life.  In fact, they have suffered some socially because they can’t eat: cake, pizza, cookies, peanut butter sandwiches, and almost any other food at a birthday party.  This has caused them separation or isolation from their friends and other family.  It’s not easy to go to a 8 year old birthday party and not be able to enjoy the food and sweets.

Last week, Erica went to school and saw Kennady with a large, red breakout on her hand.

She asked her teachers if she had been bit or stung or hurt in any way.  They said that they had not seen anything happen to Kennady from injury or insect.  They said, “the only thing we did was cook with eggs… Kennady helped us crack eggs and some got on her hands.”

That brought us to one obvious conclusion.  Kennady is allergic to eggs…Like our boys!  How awesome is that?  They are like each other.  They are in the same club. They relate to each other.

We couldn’t wait to tell the boys.  You should have seen the look on Avery’s face when we told him.  His eyes got huge. His mouth dropped open with a big smile.  Jude said, “Really?Yeah!”

I think of Adam when he woke up and saw Eve.  He said, “”This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”  Finally, he had someone to share his world with. Someone that talked back.  Someone that walked and understood life like he understood life.

Ironically, with our kids, their common ground is actually an inconvenience, but how comforting is it to know that you are sharing life people that understand your pain?