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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The girls were just six months old.<\/p>\n
Three little babies.<\/p>\n
Three car seats.<\/p>\n
One diaper bag.<\/p>\n
And one note\u2026<\/p>\n
Scribbled across the back of a gas receipt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry, Caleb.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their mother had passed away eleven days earlier.<\/p>\n
My brother managed for less than two weeks.<\/p>\n
Then he was gone.<\/p>\n
I was twenty-seven.<\/p>\n
Single.<\/p>\n
Living in a cramped apartment above the hardware store where I worked.<\/p>\n
I had $312 sitting in my bank account.<\/p>\n
And absolutely no clue how to care for one baby\u2026<\/p>\n
Much less three.<\/p>\n
My neighbor stared at me and said,<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t raise triplets by yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was probably right.<\/p>\n
But before I could contact social services\u2026<\/p>\n
The smallest girl curled her tiny hand around my finger.<\/p>\n
That settled it.<\/p>\n
I stayed.<\/p>\n
In the beginning\u2026<\/p>\n
I was Uncle Caleb.<\/p>\n
Somewhere along the journey\u2026<\/p>\n
I somehow became Dad.<\/p>\n
For twenty-two years\u2026<\/p>\n
I prepared school lunches.<\/p>\n
Ruined dinners.<\/p>\n
Braided hair badly.<\/p>\n
Worked extra shifts.<\/p>\n
Stayed awake during fevers.<\/p>\n
Applauded at school plays.<\/p>\n
Helped through broken hearts.<\/p>\n
And somehow made it through the years when all three of them considered me the most embarrassing man alive.<\/p>\n