Ever since Jourdan and Matt Moore got married in 2005, they knew they wanted to start a family together. They soon discovered, however, that Jourdan would never be able to carry a baby to full term. She suffered from Crohn’s disease and had to take medication to treat it; the drug, methotrexate, is also commonly used to induce abortions.
The couple decided they would try adopting children, but ten years passed without any luck.
It was then that one of the couple’s best friends, Hollie Mentesana, volunteered to be a surrogate for them.
Although the Moores wouldn’t be able to conceive their own child, they were able to obtain a donation of seven fertilized eggs from IVF clinics, leftover from other parents’ goals of having children, and implant them in Mentesana’s uterus.
Two of the eggs were successfully implanted and the Moores were thrilled to know they would be having non-biological twins.
Just 23 weeks later, however, Mentesana contacted Jourdan, mentioning that she was experiencing strange pressure in her lower abdomen. Jourdan thought Mentesana might just have a bladder infection – common for pregnant women – but took her to the doctor all the same.
It was there that the doctors discovered Mentesana was actually dilated ten centimeters.
The doctors didn’t believe the twins would survive if they were born so early, but there was little they could do otherwise.
Jourdan recalled receiving this news, “I didn’t want to believe [what the doctor told me], as we’d come through so much to reach that stage. Still, we had no choice but to prepare ourselves for their death.”
The Moore family and their doctors finally decided to provide their young twins with palliative care, keeping them in separate incubators in the neonatal intensive care unit for three months. Both twins had yet to fully develop; their organs weren’t completely formed and their eyes were still fused shut. Together, the twins didn’t even weigh three pounds.
With the aid of medication, the support of the doctors, as well as the love of their devoted parents, twins Jaxon and Cadence both survived. They recently celebrated their first birthday together.
Both will need specialized care and attention for the remainder of their lives, but the Moores are simply overwhelmed by the fact that they’re finally parents. “I'm so blessed and lucky that we had a good outcome, but that's not the case for everyone,” Jourdan said.
