Twins follow the same path on ‘completely different roads’

Holidays at a hospital may sound joyless to some, but Frank and Stephanie are looking forward to it.

“Everyone here has become our family — the doctors, surgeons and nurses — they’re our family, too,” said Stephanie, who bought the girls new stuffed animals, a xylophone, rocking horses, robot toys — anything with flashing lights. Christmas will be all about the girls and their gifts, followed by an event hosted by the hospital.

“We’re just going to enjoy all the festivities finally as a big group,” said

“Family time. That’s one thing we need to catch up on. A lot of family time.” FRANK SOARES FATHER

Frank. “We didn’t think it was going to be like this.”

Last Christmas, Stephanie was already on bed rest and just five months pregnant preparing for the girls’ early arrival. There was a baby shower in February, just before the births on March 9. Since then, the girls have been apart. Milayna spent her first weeks of life across the street at Mount Sinai Hospital as sister Naya was treated at SickKids. Stephanie slept on a hospital cot for three months in Naya’s room as the family awaited the first open-heart surgery last month.

“She’s been fighting since she was in my tummy. Everything that could go wrong has, but she has fought through it. She has amazed these doctors and surgeons,” said Stephanie.

Naya is becoming “quite the character” as her health improves, said Frank. “Slowly, we’re starting to see her antics. She likes to speak with her eyebrows,” he said. She’s even been getting physical with the nurses. She wiggles about, watches the hospital staff pace around her. She especially fixates on Peppa Pig, the animated series about a female pig they show her on an iPad.

“Considering everything she’s been through, she’s such a happy kid,” said Stephanie.

As starkly unlike as the twins’ years have been, their parents have watched them keep pace with each other. Milayna will sprout a tooth and Naya will follow suit a short time later.

“They’ve been following the same path on completely different roads,” said Frank.

But the girls’ roads will converge again this Christmas and over the holidays they will catch up on what they have been missing most, said Frank. “Family time. That’s one thing we need to catch up on. A lot of family time.”

The couple is optimistic that the health of their tiwns will only improve when they are spending time together in the flesh rather than over a video chat.

“I think it’s going to be a good year,” said Stephanie. “2017 is going to be a really good year.”