You probably read the article about The Mixed-Up Brothers of Bogota. Carlos and Jorge Castro and William and Wilbur Velasco, two pairs of identical twins from Columbia that ended up being raised as a pair of fraternal twins because of a mix-up at the hospital in 1988. It's all over the news.
RD mentioned the story during lunch and I admitted to the kids that the thought of having one of my babies swapped at the hospital at birth was one of my worst nightmares. "In fact," I told them, "I cried when I had to leave GI at the hospital when he was born. They would not let us bring him home with us because he still had some jaundice."
My mind ran through their birth stories then it dawned on me, "I also had to leave MyGirl at the hospital. We were only checked in for a half-day when MyGirl was born. I went home the next day but she had to stay at the hospital for 24 hours." And I concluded with, "Oh, but you RD, I brought you home with me the day after you were born. It was New Year's Eve, the hospital had a very lean staff and we didn't want to stay there. So we went home."
This bit of information made RD crow, "Yes! You guys might have been swapped. I'm legit."
Despite the fact I look so much like my sisters and that MacGyver resemble his brothers (even if he denies it), the three kids don't look like each other at all. It is understandable that MyGirl doesn't look like her brothers but with the boys not looking like each other, that makes the three of them look like a bag of mixed nuts.
(BTW, I love mixed nuts, especially if they look like these.)
I teased RD that if there was anyone that didn't look like anyone in our family, it would be him (although we all know that he does look like Father). GI looks so much like his dad and his paternal cousins. MyGirl looks like me; everyone, including Facebook, thinks so. But RD is really combination of both parents and does not distinctly look like one or the other. I teased RD but I reassured him that I was 100% certain he was ours.
So is it nature or nurture? There will always be a debate. The reality is that two of these boys were dealt a different set of cards having been "adopted" by accident. It is comforting to know that although they were not related by blood, Wilber told William, "I don't care who they are. You're my brother, and you'll be my brother until the day I die." And in a similar token, to prove how much he cared for his sibling, Jorge had the face of his fraternal twin Carlos tattooed on his chest.
For the twins in the NY Times story, their lives will continue but it will never quite be the same. The movie Big Business, revolving around this theme, was made in 1988, the year these twins were born. But life is not always the same as seen on the big screen. Let's just hope these Columbian twins also have a happy ending.
