The More the Merrier

One week ago 33-year-old mother Evonne Derrico gave birth to a healthy set of quintuplets; two boys and three girls (Deniko, Dariz, Deonee, Daician and Dalten, although, don't ask me which are the girls and which are the boys, because all of those names are kind of unusual to me). Evonne carried the babies for eight months (about four weeks longer than the national average for quints). Evonne was originally expecting quadruplets, but a fifth baby was discovered at a later appointment.

The father, Deon, said that he and his wife have been blessed with "the most magnificent gift." (The  quintuplets were conceived without the use of any fertility drugs, which is quite extraordinary.) The Derricos already have a relatively large family (at least, by the world's standards). They have a seven-year-old girl, three-year-old boy and one-year-old twin boys. (And yes, all nine children's names start with the letter "D.") :)

Deon and Evonne said that they've always dreamed of having a large family and have talked about having between 11 and 12 children. Deon said, "I want as many children as God will bless me with." He also said that he and his wife have not ruled out having more children. The family has more than doubled in size, and Deon did admit that he has some anxiety when it comes to knowing how he'll support his large family, but that he'll do whatever it takes to support them.

I thought this picture of the Derrico family was so cute with Deon and the kids all gathered around Evonne. Since it's only been one week since the quints arrived it's a little too early to have a picture of all 11 of them, since all of the babies weigh less than 3 lbs and are still in the NICU, but the second picture does show all five babies.