We hope this story offers hope and encouragement about the exciting and sometimes turbulent times of bringing a family to life. - Liz and Andrew
This true story begins in Boston, MA in August 2004. Lauren, a good friend of Liz’s, was getting married to Mike. While taking a carriage ride from the church to the reception, an old man with a long white beard, approached the carriage at a stop light looking to congratulate the newly weds. The man handed them a wooden turtle he had been carving on the porch and told Lauren and Mike that turtles symbolize fertility and he wished them well as they pulled away.
Fast forward six months to Hoboken, NJ. Lauren and Mike had bought their first place together. As they were moving in, they noticed the previous owner had left a small wooden turtle in the entertainment unit that came with the condo. Shortly afterwards, they found out they were pregnant with twins.
In May 2007, Andrew and Liz were in New York for a wedding and visited Mike and Lauren, who as it turned out were pregnant again. Liz and Andrew were looking forward to starting a family, so Lauren gave them the turtle from their wedding day for good luck.
On the way back to Cincinnati, Andrew mentioned to Liz, “We’re going to start seeing turtles every where, I bet there’s a real one in our driveway, when we get home.” A month later, although there had not been any turtle sightings, Andrew and Liz were pregnant.
On July 27th however, a miscarriage was confirmed and the pregnancy had come to an end. Important to note, since initially receiving the turtle back in May, there had been no sightings or references of turtles for either Andrew or Liz. In fact in early July, the turtle had been returned back to Lauren and Mike, since less than a month after receiving it, a pregnancy had begun.
In October 2007, Andrew and Liz found out they were pregnant again and a week later, while dropping off information to the local St. Vincent de Paul headquarters, Andrew noticed that a stuffed animal had been left out in the courtyard, which upon closer inspection turned out to be a turtle. A week later, while inside the Bellarmine Chapel Parish Center, Andrew looked out the window and noticed a stone turtle was in the bushes, concealing a lawn sprinkler.
More turtle sightings and references continued…
While walking around her classroom, Liz noticed a student’s screen saver had turtles going across it. At Thanksgiving, Nick, their 5 year old nephew started talking about his desire to get a real live turtle for Christmas.
Last but not least, both of Andrew’s parents went to the University of Illinois and his grandparents had always been connected to the school. Growing up, the Fighting Illini were his favorite team, especially football and basketball. One of Liz’s good friends, Lisa, went to college at Illinois, while another good friend, Laura, went to Ohio State. In November of 2007, Illinois beat an undefeated Ohio State team. While getting together over Thanksgiving, they began talking about Illinois’ upset win over Ohio State. At that point, Lisa mentioned the Illibuck trophy, which is a statue of a turtle that goes to the winning team each year. Fittingly, it was the first time Andrew had ever heard of the turtle that goes to the winner of the game, despite being a lifelong Illinois fan.
In December 2007, Liz and Andrew decided to start sharing their story of the turtle, especially with those we know who are looking forward to starting a family. We hope the legend of the turtle continues to grow and that you keep us posted of your stories along the way.
UPDATE: Anna Roth Curran, was born at 1:10pm at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati on Friday, June 13, 2008, almost 1 year to the day that Liz and Andrew first found out they were initially pregnant.
MORE STORIES - Last updated July 12, 2009
