Happy twins join an older sibling

THE PARENTS: O’Sheila Eural, 34, and David Eural, 35, of Willingboro, N.J.

THE KIDS: Dahvi Josiah, 3; Dakari Oved and Oriana D’Elle, born Nov. 30, 2021

AN EARLY COURTSHIP MOMENT: The first time David met O’Sheila’s family, he struggled to understand their Jamaican patois. “All of them were laughing at me — in a good way,” he recalls. “It was a joyful embarrassment.”

David knew O’Sheila would never say no to a stop at Chick-fil-A. So after a walk in Palmyra Cove Nature Park — the site of their first kiss in February 2010 — the two swung by the fast-food spot in Delran.

What O’Sheila didn’t know was that David had made an earlier trip to that Chick-fil-A, asked employees to hide his guitar in the back, and invited more than a dozen relatives and friends to show up around lunchtime.

David got their food, then said he’d be right back. “But I was really hungry, so I’m there scarfing down the chicken, and all of a sudden, here he comes around the corner with a guitar and … everybody.”

He sang “We Can Be More” by Sho Baraka, one of the couple’s favorite songs, then asked O’Sheila to marry him. A restaurant worker came forward with flowers and free cheese dip. Friends captured the moment on their phones.

Their courtship had been slow, especially if they count from the moment they met, as high school students, at a meeting for a local mentorship program. They attended the same high school — they were even in Spanish class together — but O’Sheila was the artsy/ROTC girl then, and David was all about football and band.

“She wasn’t on my radar,” he recalls. Their paths crossed a few times after high school graduation, but it wasn’t until summer 2009 — when a friend of David’s implored him to give a ride to a Rowan University student who needed a lift to campus from her job at Best Buy — that the two reconnected.

During the hour-long car ride, the two talked — about relationships, about emotions. “I definitely noticed her at that point,” David says. “After that, we became friends.”

And that was all — half a year of texts and hanging out, O’Sheila becoming a regular at David’s band’s gigs — until the kiss in the park.

“We didn’t rush anything,” O’Sheila recalls. “Every two seconds, my sister was asking: Are you guys together yet? We’d say: No, we’re keeping it casual.”

But after the engagement, the timeline moved faster: a house, then a wedding at Willingboro Christian Assembly, memorable because the bridal party was an hour late and because David’s father, a minister, officiated.

They wanted to savor married life for a few years before adding children to the mix. By spring 2018, they were trying — so it wasn’t a total surprise when an at-home pregnancy test proved positive.

“It was one of those scary-good-anxious-joyful moments,” O’Sheila says. “All the feelings.” They told her mother — or, at least, attempted to — by dressing O’Sheila’s niece in a onesie that read, “I’m going to be a cousin!” But O’Sheila’s mother, distracted by dinner preparations, didn’t comprehend the message at first.

“She read it again. Then she started screaming and eventually started crying,” O’Sheila says.

The pregnancy was uneventful, and O’Sheila worked until the week before delivery. She’d imagined a natural birth, but once doctors at Cooper University Hospital administered Pitocin, she changed her mind. “I said, ‘Let’s get the epi guy back in here. This is not for me. This is one for modern medicine.’ ”

Still, the birth was what she’d hoped for: a tranquil vibe, with a scent diffuser and a Bluetooth speaker playing worship music and soothing instrumentals. When their son emerged, “His eyes were open. He popped his head up and looked at us,” O’Sheila says. “This little human that we made who’s not in the womb, who’s tangible, and we could feel his warmth. We were enamored by him.”

New parenthood meant sleep-starvation and anxiety about whether Dahvi was getting enough nourishment. They wanted a second child, but not right away. When Dahvi was 2, O’Sheila began posing the question. David’s response: whenever you’re ready.

This time, she tucked the drugstore stick in the bathroom cabinet and said, “David, can you go and get me the thing that’s under the sink?”

“I can’t go looking for a ‘thing,’ ” he answered. Then he saw it. “What is this? Are you … pregnant?”

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, O’Sheila had to attend the first ultrasound appointment alone. The tech moved the wand: “Here’s your baby, right here … and, oh, there’s another one!”

“I was like: No. You’re lying. I just started to laugh hysterically, and then cry. I didn’t know what else to do,” O’Sheila remembers. The office was giving out carnations in honor of National Women’s Health Week, and they handed O’Sheila a pair of pink blooms.

She took a picture and texted it to David. “Would you like to guess why the office gave me two carnations?”

David, who is a twin himself, texted back: “Because you’re two months pregnant?”

“We were in disbelief for about six months,” O’Sheila says. “It was just so mind-blowing: There’s two in there.” She craved ice and visited her local Wawa frequently for a mango-strawberry smoothie and their largest cup of ice.

This time, she reached 5 cm dilation without feeling a single contraction; at a regular appointment the week before her due date, the doctor said, “You need to go to the hospital. Now.” But then her labor stalled; it took several trips to the hospital before she was far enough along to be admitted.

She’d hoped for December babies. But the twins — Dakari first, then his sister 33 minutes later — arrived in the late hours of Nov. 30. It was a tense birth, with a small crowd of doctors poised in the room in case of complications.

At home, when Dahvi met his siblings, he crowed, “Where are my babies?” then sat mesmerized in front of them.

For his parents, utter exhaustion alternates with spurts of gratitude. “They come before you at all times,” David says. “Just trying to do that every day is tiring. But you see their smiles, and you get some sort of energy from it all.”