With Linda Trepamier being a nurse, there couldn’t have been anyone better to adopt two boys with extreme medical conditions like twins Matthew and Marshall Trepanier.
Trepamier, who was 58 when she adopted them, already has three grown children and three grandchildren of her own.
“When I first saw the twins I thought they were the most adorable little things I had ever seen. They had these big heads and tiny bodies,” Trepamier said. “They weighed 8lbs but their bodies were the size of newborns, so most of the weight was because of their heads. I just fell in love with them. I knew in my heart that they were my boys.”
At a time when many told her she should be retiring, she and her partner Mike Fink, who is a care assistant, decided to foster the twins.
And they eventually adopted them.
“People struggle to understand. They say, ‘Oh, those kids are going to tie you down,’ but I have learned to live with it. I just feel privileged that I have been able to make a real, positive difference to Matthew and Marshall’s lives,” Trepamier said.
The boys have what is known as Pfeiffer Syndrome. A condition characterized by oversized, misshapen heads that occur as a result of the bones in the skull fusing prematurely in the womb.
Pfeiffer Syndrome may also involve hand and foot deformities, fibrous joints, high foreheads, displaced ears, and protruding eyes.
Matthew and Marshall were put into foster care at 4 months old after it was determined that their parents were unable to care for them.
Child Protective Services eventually asked Trepamier if she would adopt one of the boys.
But Trepamier said she’d adopt them both. She couldn’t imagine splitting up the boys despite the hard work it takes to care for the two children with serious special needs.
Matthew and Marshall require care 24-7 and need to attend regular doctor’s appointments.
The boys require breathing tubes to live and get around in wheelchairs.
The twins have special glasses because of their poor eyesight. They’ve also had about three operations to adjust the bone in their skulls that fused together.
“They are a lot of hard work but they are also a lot of fun – they are the happiest and smiliest. Almost always if one twin laughs the other twin will automatically laugh as well. Everybody just falls in love with them,” Trepamier said.
Trepamier quit her job as a nurse in 1986 to foster children with special needs.
She’s fostered a total of 16 children in her home.
Trepamier says she has wanted to be a nurse and take care of children and babies since she was a little girl.
“It has always been my passion and once I started doing the foster care and teaching other nurses how to provide care I just felt like it was something I was born to do,” the nurse said.
Learn more about Trepamier and her boys in the video below.
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