Picture the scene, you and your partner decide you love your family but maybe there is a small gap and all you need is just one more baby. One more baby to fill the missing piece and everything would be perfect. At your first ultrasound you wait in excited expectation, waiting to see that first grainy little hand waving across the screen, hear the first wooshing sound of a heartbeat, knowing your family will be complete.
As you sit there with the cold jelly on your belly maybe the sonographer does a little gasp and you wonder what could have happened, they turn the screen around and you finally see your babies face, then another, and another, and another, until you realise you see 5. 5 fuzzy little black and white faces, 10 little hands waving and 5 little heart beats wooshing and you realise life is about to change way more than you ever could have imagined.
We are mothers, we’ve got this
Though it sounds like an unlikely situation (it’s a 1 in 60 million chance, in case you were wondering) Kim and Vaughn Tucci from Australia became that one couple, leaving them with 8 children under 9yrs of age and they realised, very quickly, that they needed help. How do you ask for help in 2016? How do you ask your village? You reach for the internet.
This already earns them my upmost respect as personally I would still be in panic mode, then maybe crying, then back to panic, I suspect this would last until they had grown and left home. I know my limits.
Kim and Vaughn though, they just jumped right in, starting a GoFundMe campaign but never really expecting a lot to come from it. Well they were in for a surprise with over 1100 people donating in just 2 days, their campaign hit heights they were never expecting. More than that though, more than the money, which was very gratefully received I’m sure, was the surprise at the level of love given, Messages of support came with the money, advice from all around the world, virtual hand holding but I, for one, was not surprised because of one detail people forget.
We are mothers.
No matter how you feed your baby, dress your baby, swaddle your baby or not, at the end of all of that, we are a community. If you have 1 baby or 8 or even more, if a child needs help, we are there. We can sit online and argue the benefits of cloth diapers over disposable until 3am if we have to, but when another mum comes online in the middle of that discussion and says help me, we help. We are amazing.
My mother once lamented to me that things weren’t the same, that I didn’t have the neighbourhood she had to help me with my babies. She was right, I don’t. I have the world. I have all of you and you all have me. When your kids have been screaming all day, when you have food in your hair and you are on your last scrap of patience it just takes that one person to say, me too….me too, to make it seem like you are not so alone. When women support women the world becomes an incredible place. When someone holds your hand and says, you are doing great, you feel like maybe you can take on the world, even with that baby sick down your back.
That is why I am not surprised that when Kim Tucci reached out for help, the internet community reached right back and said, don’t worry we’ve got this. We are incredible and we’ve all got each other.
Huge thanks to Erin Elizabeth Photography for allowing us to use her stunningly gorgeous images! Want to keep up with the quints? Follow Kim and Vaughn’s journey on Kim’s Facebook page. She’s actually working on a book about her story and updates the page frequently.
They are very lucky that so many people responded to the go fund me campaign, sadly I see so many really worthy campaigns there get ignored and some that are just blatant crap like celebs wanting funding for a movie get tons of money…the internet is certainly a wonderland isn’t it?
What an incredible story. I can’t even imagine. Like you, I’d probably freak out too. I have two and feel like I’ll go crazy some days, I can’t imagine 8. And 5 at once!!! Whoa.
I do love all of the support she received. That’s heart warming.
Beautiful story! I loved reading it. I am pregnant right now with my first (just one in there!) I could not imagine the surprise of FIVE!
Simply amazing. Beautiful photos and beautiful story. I could NOT imagine having 5 at once. Having 4 single births was hard enough. Bless her
These are beautiful photos. I can not imagine having five babies at the same time. It is amazing the support you can get from people all over the world.
I get surprised when I see people have twins, I can’t imagine five! There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking for help, and I hope they receive a lot of it!
Wow, and yikes, this is a heck of a story!
I am glad you were able to get the help you need.
Best of luck with your new adventurous challenge!
Your are wonderful, those are some very sweet pictures of you and the cute little ones! Congratulations with the campaign success as well!
The pictures are so beautiful! I think it’s wonderful she received so much love and support from people online. There really is a lot of good out there in the world!
It’s amazing that so many people were willing to help out. I love these pictures!
What a beautiful story and a gorgeous family. I love seeing people come together to help others.
That is such a beautiful story! I can’t imagine have 5 kids at once, and I love that all those moms banded together to help her.