How Her Family Has Grown Closer During the Quarantine

Hi Guideposts, I’m Nikki Cooper. I’m a teacher and a mom, and I wrote this story for Guideposts in celebration of the fact that my twin sons, who are now 15, have finally started to get along after about seven years of really not liking each other at all. Like you would think most twins have a twin language and really get along and like each other, my twins never really have, since they were seven or eight at least. They’ve fought and argued and been miserable when they’re together and caused a lot of stress in our family. But over the quarantine, a miracle kind of happened in our family. I believe it was the ninth day that we were stuck at home. They started to get along, miraculously. While I was cooking dinner one night, I heard the laughter of both of my boys, coming from the same room and I went to check it out and, sure enough, they were playing video games together. And ever since that day, they have done a lot of things together and they haven’t fought. They skateboard together, they hang out together, watch movies together and just really seem to enjoy each other’s company. I spent a lot of time praying about Brennan and Breckan and their relationship. I would pray before I went to bed at night or on my way to work, all my normal prayer times. And of course I would pray, any time they had a big blow-up. Sometimes, though, I think God would send me little messengers, glimmers of hope in the form of people. I specifically remember a girl that was a nurse at their pediatrician’s office. She asked me, “What’s it like to raise twins? How do you like having twins?” “Because I’m a twin,” she said, and I said, “Well, I love having twins. It’s great, they’re awesome, but they don’t get along very well. They fight like cats and dogs. It’s really stressful.” And she said, “Oh yeah, my sister and I couldn’t stand each other either. We fought all the time, it drove my mom crazy. But now we’re 30 and we’re best friends. I call her every night before I go to sleep.” That would give me hope. It bring me some peace and comfort. So I feel like that was God’s way of telling me, just be patient. Things are going to work themselves out. It’s really like a miracle that’s happened in my family. And I just wanted to write about it and celebrate it.