First Posted: 3/6/2015
LIMA — There’s evidence all over the place. Photos on the wall, stuffed animals, dolls and drawings on the floor.
A little girl sits on her mother’s lap, eyes closed and face covered. Another looks up from her chair with a big smile. Their father sits on a couch on the other side of the room behind the girls’ sister, the third triplet, who lays in a small bed in the middle of the family’s living room. Two dogs whimper from down the hall — they want to say hello.
Alexus, the first born of the Miller triplets, has autism which contributes to anxiety making her weary of strangers and camera flashes. She may struggle in school, but she’s a Minecraft prodigy. She clutches her stuffed Creeper, a pixelated green monster that blows up when players get too close. She also loves to draw, offering visitors pictures of Minecraft characters.
Caylah jumps from chair to chair, sharing funny stories her parents might prefer she didn’t. But they laugh anyway. She’s a typical 9 year old. She loves math and reading and helps out with her sisters when she can — anything but diapers.
Briana, who has cerebral palsy and is blind, is not as easily understood. The smile on her face gets the point across pretty easily, though. Her family can help to translate the rest. She knows she’s loved, Dad says, able to recognize family members’ voices. She has no worries even if she’s had 30 surgeries, the latest about a month ago.
Their mother grabs a bag of mementos, a photo album, an extra first diaper, kept to demonstrate how small they were. The items paint the picture of three Barbie-sized baby girls — the A-B-C triplets — able to wear doll clothes and diapers the size of your palm. She reveals a tattoo on her calf depicting three sets of foot prints.
The scene was never something the girl’s parents, Kristy and Bob Miller, ever imagined or planned. But they wouldn’t have it any other way.
“They really are miracles,” Kristy Miller said.
Engaged and planning their wedding, the Millers were surprised with a pregnancy. The unplanned event turned into even more of a surprise when their premature triplets arrived. Born at 24 weeks in 2005, doctors gave the girls a 24 percent chance of survival. (Babies are considered premature if they’re born before 37 weeks.) Later, Briana’s chances fell to about 4 percent. She probably wouldn’t make it to age 5.
Still, there was no way Kristy Miller was going home without all three of her babies.
Eventually, all three girls returned with their parents to Lima. They’re the only multiples in Ohio to be born so prematurely and all survive. Cooped up in a two-bedroom apartment, the Millers had three cribs along with a host of medical equipment, 50 bottles a day and just as many diapers. Despite the chaos, they married six weeks after their homecoming.
It’s been tough. Kristy Miller left her job as a paramedic to be home full time. Bob Miller eventually left the same career, now working for John P. Timmerman Heating and Air Conditioning.
“I have an ICU in my home,” she said. “Three 9 year olds are a lot of work.”
Looking at their kids, Bob Miller said, how could we complain?
Their first vacation with everyone was a surprise trip to Florida last year. The girls continue to grow and birthdays come and go — Thursday will be their 10th.
They’ve done princess and carnival birthdays, so this year they’re doing a skate party, Bob Miller said. The girls haven’t decided on what they want. Caylah just knows she doesn’t want to do the hokey-pokey. Alexus wants another Minecraft toy.
Kristy Miller said people always ask how they do it, dealing with the unknown.
“We live day by day, and each day is a new memory we get to keep,” Kristy Miller said. “The doctors weren’t even sure they’d make it this long, but they keep proving them wrong.”
The evidence of that, she said, is everywhere.
