My name is Briana Hoisington, and along with my husband, Luke, and our daughter, Penelope, we live in Waterville, Minnesota. Some of you may know us; some of you may not. Some of you will feel compelled to read our story; some of you may not. Our story starts with love. Grows with love. And there is no end to our love. I truly hope you choose to read on.

 On February 2, 2013, I walked down the aisle to the man of my dreams. My soul was full of hope and love for the beautiful journey we were about to begin. Luke Marion Hoisington is the most incredible man I have ever known and on that very special day, I became his wife. The day was a fairytale. As we embarked on our new life together, we knew there would be trials and tribulations – ups and downs – good and bad…but, little did we know, our world was about to be changed forever.

On March 15, 2013, I sat in the doctor’s office with my mom. I knew I was pregnant. I could feel it in my bones. But, on that very day, just six weeks and six days pregnant, our doctor told us something we least expected…we were having twins!

Our story is very complex with a ton of details. It’s really hard for me to condense this, but as best I can, here is the long story short.

The pregnancy was very difficult. I had hyperemesis gravidarum, which is extreme sickness 24/7. I had to quit work, as I could barely function. I was constantly vomiting, going in a total of six times to the emergency room for dehydration to get fluids. We made it through to 20 weeks and received some very scary news. My cervix was shortening and opening. When pregnant with one child, they would do a cervical cerclage. But, it was shown to be too risky and could cause infection and preterm labor with twins. There was nothing we could do but wait. I went on slight bed rest, but they said that wasn’t even proven to help. I tried to embrace every moment of my pregnancy and live a somewhat normal life. But, all I really knew I could do was pray. And pray hard.

But, at 22 weeks, 3 days, I woke up early in the morning with contractions. I thought we would go in to the hospital and they would give me something to stop the contractions. But, those were not the words that came out of the doctor’s mouth. The twins were coming…today.

 The rest is much of a blur. With my husband and mom at my side, we prepared for delivery. They asked us what we wanted to do. Without hesitation, both Luke and I said, “Whatever we can do to try and save our children.” With that said, a call was immediately placed to Rochester’s Transport Team. The team showed up in a fury. They got all their equipment set up. Cohen Cooper Hoisington arrived within minutes. At 9:20 a.m., we had our baby boy. After a little resting for mama while the Pitocin kicked in, Calla Grace Hoisington was born at 10:06 a.m. They each weighed 1 pound 4 ounces...pretty big for 22-week old twins. They were immediately whisked away by the Team and intubated.

The twins were brought to the St. Mary’s NICU in Rochester. About 36 hours after delivery, the call we prayed wouldn't come, did. Cohen had a massive pulmonary hemorrhage in his lungs and he wasn't doing well.  After a detailed talk with the doctors, and lots of shock and tears, we found out that Cohen wasn't going to make it. But he was so strong and he waited for us...for his parents. We were able to hold him, cuddle him and love him all up. On July 4, 2013, Cohen Cooper passed away in his daddy's arms.



Our story in the NICU with Calla consists of 20 beautiful days. It was a rollercoaster of good and bad days, but we cherish every one of them. Again, condensing my story immensely, on July 22, 2013, Calla Grace peacefully flew off to heaven in her mommy's arms, with daddy right by her side. Our children were together again.


The next few months of our lives were a whirlwind of emotions. We didn’t know how to process what had happened. What do we do now? Where do we turn? How do we go back to our everyday lives.

Well, we found out that you don’t. You learn to live a “new” normal. You allow your mind, body and soul to grieve. Some days were much better than others. But, we moved forward together. Luke and I made a decision on the day we were married that we were in this forever…together.

Over the next few months, we started going back in to the doctor in Rochester. We met with specialists to try and understand why everything happened. No one truly knows for certain, but their best guess is that I have an incompetent cervix that they couldn’t do anything about. We started doing ultrasounds and lots of testing. Shortly after, they found out that I had developed Asherman’s Syndrome. This came about from the intensive D & C that I had after the twins’ delivery. With the placentas retaining so strong, it was more aggressive. This causes scar tissue to form in your uterus.

Three surgeries later, they finally felt confident that they had removed the scar tissue enough to try and get pregnant. It’s a tricky syndrome, as the surgery to remove the scar tissue that both lined my uterus and made walls from one side to the other, could also cause scar tissue when trying to heal. But, it was our only option.

After hormone treatments to heal, months of waiting with bad news heard much too often, God decided it was time. On March 11, 2014, we found out I was pregnant. This is almost, to the day, one year after finding out we were pregnant with with Cohen and Calla.

I had hoped it would be different than my pregnancy with the twins, but many things seemed to be the same. I got VERY sick, 24/7, from 6 to 14 weeks with 6 trips to the ER for fluids for dehydration due to vomiting. Then at 20 weeks, my cervix started shortening again. But this time, we were able to do a cervical cerclage. :) Then I went on bed rest until about 28 weeks and then just took it very easy...lots of resting, no heavy lifting, etc. And the baby was breech from very early on and decided to never turn on her own. We had the option for the doctor to try and turn her, but decided it was best not to with my history.

So, our c-section was scheduled for Friday, October 31, 2014, at 38 weeks, for our little girl to finally join us. Over the past 20 months, I had been pregnant for 14 of them. So I was ready. :)

Penelope Lacen Hoisington was born at 8:39 a.m., weighing 5 pounds 9 ounces and 20 inches long.

We chose the name Penelope after finding it in a baby book and it just fit. And for her middle name, we wanted to honor her big brother and sister. We used the letters in the twins' names, Cohen and Calla, and rearranged them to get Penelope's middle name. Lacen.

I feel incredibly blessed for my now family of 5.  Our twins, Cohen and Calla, will always be a part of my heart.  I miss them so much every day and may never know why this all happened.  But, I delivered our two precious babies and they made me a mother.  They are my angel babies and now I also have my baby here on earth.  To have Penelope here, safe and sound, pulls at my heart strings.

She is perfect and definitely our little miracle. 


Fast forward to April, 2015. We went back in to Mayo in Rochester to do some more tests to see if the Asherman’s Sydrome had caused more scar tissue after my pregnancy with Penelope. Following the ultrasound, sadly we found out that it had. Not at all the news we wanted to hear, but we wanted more children, so a surgery was scheduled for September. Surgery completed, ultrasound done, scar tissue remained. Surgery two set for December 28, 2015. Surgery completed, ultrasound done.

February 4, 2016, I sat in the doctor’s office with doctors that knew my entire story. They know me, my husband, my daughter. They know the twins. They know my life. They are attached. Tears roll down their faces. The scar tissue is back, and it’s even more. No more surgeries can be done. There isn’t anything else they can do. Chances of getting pregnant on our own are decreased because of the syndrome. But even worse, the risks and complications have increased. It can not only be life threatening to our child, but to me. Pregnancy isn’t advised.

Now what. It’s hard to breathe as they hand me pamphlets for adoption. My head is spinning and my heart is breaking. I long to have another sibling for Penelope. To not be able to carry a child. To feel their sweet body moving so gracefully inside of me. A bond that is like no other. I can’t have that again. What do you mean?

Luke and I have struggled to process this. But, we turned to our faith. We know that God has a plan for our family. It’s impossible for us not to question things, but we are turning over our hurt, anger, frustration and sadness to God. We are letting him take us in and lead us on to the next part of our journey.

Adoption quickly entered our world. Our family is meant to grow. We have love to share and nurturing and kindness to give. To be able to love and care for a child that needs us is impossible to explain. I feel we are being called to this. To bring Penelope’s sibling into our home. To expand our family. To have another child of our own.


Fast forward again to present day. I am privileged and blessed to stay home with our beautiful 16-month old daughter. Penelope is full of teethy smiles and a fun & sassy personality. She lights up our world and we don’t know what life would be like without her. Luke works incredibly hard to let me be able to stay home with Penelope. After losing the twins, I knew I could never leave again when we had another baby. I don’t have to miss any firsts and I get to be home to raise our little girl. It’s hard. Money is tight. But, we choose this because it’s so worth it for us. We make sacrifices so it’s possible. This makes the idea of adoption even more overwhelming as it holds such a daunting monetary number.

I know that everyone has struggles and holds heartache within them. I know everyone has experienced loss. I completely understand we are not the only ones. You never know what the person next to you is dealing with. I’m not sharing our story to receive pity or to get sad stares. I share our story to let the world know we are still here. We have gone through things that I never would have imagined we could survive. But, we did. Here we are. God understands how strong we are and His plan is far bigger than we hold for ourselves. I feel truly blessed for my husband and three children. I have been given far more than I probably deserve. I understand that I am not in control of our future if it isn’t part of God’s future for me. But, we feel called to have our family grow and welcome another child into our home. We have so much love to share.

It’s impossibly hard for us to ask for help. But, we need it.

What kind of help is completely up to you. We ask for the mental and emotional support as we begin this new journey into adoption. We ask for physical support – surround us with your presence and love. We ask for spiritual support through prayers. Lots and lots of prayers. And we are asking for your financial support. To the best of our knowledge, adoption fees are between $20,000-$40,000. That is a LOT of money. But you can’t put a price tag on your children.

There is a child out there that is already a part of our family. We just need help bringing them home.

All our love & blessings –

Luke, Briana & Penelope Hoisington