Have you heard the story about Courtney and Brian Hill? You know, Brian was a retired Navy veteran that served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait, and lost his life in a truck ᴀᴄᴄɪᴅᴇɴᴛ. They had one daughter and had been making plans to build their family and have more kids. In fact, Courtney took a pregnancy test that very morning, when Brian lost his life. That test was negative. However, something strange had happened just before the ғᴜɴᴇʀᴀʟ.
Courtney was desperate after she had lost her husband. All of a sudden she was a single-mother whose plans were crashed on that ᴛʀᴀɢɪᴄ morning. And in her desperation, she did another test… And guess what, it was positive. Courtney was pregnant. And 25 weeks later, asked her to come to the hospital. He had something to tell her.
At the ғᴜɴᴇʀᴀʟ, just before Brian was laid to rest, Courtney grabbed his lifeless hand and whispered the news in his ear. They were going to have a baby—or so she thought.
On March 2, exactly one month after Brian’s ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ, Courtney’s mother took her to the hospital after she feared she might be having a ᴍɪsᴄᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇ.
The news was just the opposite. At the hospital, Courtney learned she was having TRIPLETS!
“My jaw DROPPED,” shared the stunned mother. “I’m excited to have three more smiles that remind me of him.”
But her joy quickly turned ᴛʀᴀɢɪᴄ again when her father-in-law passed away. Courtney and Brian had been living in Texas to aid with his sick father. After his passing, Courtney moved back to Illinois to be close to her family.
At her 25-week appointment, doctors told Courtney that she had lost one of her triplets. The boy that was going to be named Brady no longer had a heartbeat.
“It caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting to hear that news at the ultrasound. It reminded me of the loss of my husband, with his loss came blessings. I lost Brady but I was given two newborn babies who are healthy. Most triplets have weeks in intensive care. Not in my case, everybody went home the next day. We have suffered, but we also have been blessed with little miracles.”
Courtney gave birth to Harper and Miles, her two surviving miracles on September 21.
She says the most difficult thing she’s had to face since the babies were born is explaining Brady, because strangers often ask if the babies are twins.
“People jump to the conclusion that they are twins. I call them surviving triplets. Many people get it, but others don’t. I don’t expect people to know my story, that I had three heartbeats for 26 weeks, but it hurts when I hear ‘twins’ and I know in my heart that they are triplets.”
Courtney says that her daughter Reagan will sometimes help her explain that Brady passed away.
“She’ll tell them, ‘My brother Brady is in Heaven with my daddy.’ Usually that’s when other people get it. I don’t want Brady to go unrecognized. He will always be my little boy. To call them surviving triplets makes me happy because I know he gets credit he deserves.”
A GoFundMe page was set up to financially support her growing family. Since Courtney’s story went viral, the new mom told IJ Review that she has received a lot of hateful backlash about her husband as well as her lost triplet.
“People tell me they are glad the baby ᴅɪᴇᴅ or that they hope Child Protective Services comes to take my family away. Unless you walk mile in my shoes, you have no idea what I’m going through. They don’t see that I’m a healthy, fit mom who takes care of her children. And they don’t know how I’m handling things when I go to sleep at night.”
Despite the hardships and surviving through what many would call the most heartbreaking year imaginable, Courtney is determined to set a good example and do things as a family that always include Daddy.
“They will all know about their dad,” she said. “From military, to family man…he was the true hero. He was an amazing man, always willing to help others. He was just an amazing father and husband. He was perfect.”
References: faithit.com, 24hviralphotos.com
