Three sets of Platte County twins born into one anomaly

Mark DeLap
Posted 6/8/21

According to the Tech Interactive,

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Three sets of Platte County twins born into one anomaly

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WHEATLAND – According to the Tech Interactive, in 2003, there are an average of 16 sets of twins born per 1,000 births in the United States and an estimated one in 250 natural pregnancies will naturally result in twins.

The odds go up greatly for siblings to each have twins in their own families. In the event of three siblings each having a set of twins, some say the odds can go as high as 1 in 15 million. 

That anomaly happened right here in Platte County to the siblings who had a “Goertz” in their baby endeavors.

“It feels crazy,” said one-half of the eldest Goertz twins, Laynie Goertz (16). 

“It’s kinda cool,” said the other half of that tandem, Cole Goertz (16).

The eldest set of twins, born to Jason Goertz and now Josie Lauck happened 16 years ago and began the miracle of three twin births to Goertz family siblings.

Josie Lauck, current administrator at Wheatland’s Platte County Legacy Home said, “I was about five months pregnant when I found out it was a possibility that I I could be having twins. We had to wait about a week before having an ultrasound to find out. There were not many twins in my family or Jason’s (Goertz) that we knew of, so I thought it was close to impossible.”

After a week of anticipation, the ultrasound finally came and confirmed that there were twins. The first set that would be born under a Goertz star.

“We could not have been happier and more shocked at the same time,” Lauck said. “Once the twins were born, it took a bit of trial and error to figure out how to get more than an hour of sleep at a time. Once we figured it out, they actually slept pretty good. As Jason and I were brand-new parents we were happy to have Jason’s mom and my grandma who were happy to help out whenever we needed them.”

Lauck said that twins were actually easier than a single child because they each had a 24/7 playmates. Now as teenagers, both children kind of laugh when asked if they get along, but Lauck says that they are the best of friends.

In the Goertz siblings, Jason was the oldest, Matt was the second child and Tori was the youngest. The strange part of the story was that there were no twins that could be found in the annuls of the Goertz family. 

At the time of the first set of twins, Matt and Kim were just dating and twins was not in their minds of their vocabulary.

“It was just completely unexpected,” said Matt. “It was a complete shock and surprise when Cole and Laynie were born. Nobody expected that, but everyone was super excited.”

Matt and Kim had gotten married and had their first son, Connor, and still twins had not entered into the imagination of their hearts.

“A couple of years later after Connor (now 10 years old) was born, we found out that we were going to have twins,” Matt said. “Now, on Kim’s side of the family, in her history, they do have a twin. After they were born, wherever we went, people were always excited to see two sets of twins in one family.”

“My grandmother was a twin who had twins,” Kim (kindergarten teacher at Libbey Elementary) said. “My mom’s cousin also had twins. When I went to the doctor I was with my mom and I was having some complications so we went in for an ultrasound. The lady said, ‘you have a history of twins?’ and I said, ‘yeah…’ and she replied, ‘oh, because you are having them.’”

At that point due her unbelief, Kim requested to see the screen, and sure enough there they were.

“At that point, she showed me the screen and showed me baby A and baby B and we just started bawling,” she said. “I then called my husband who was driving on the interstate and he was trying to pull over and getting out of the car and pretty excited.”

Matt admitted that it’s always a surprise when you hear that word. And a few months later, Dane and Luke had been welcomed to planet Earth.

“We have one (Jacob) that’s almost 2 years old,” Tori Hendren (Second grade teacher at Libbey Elementary) said. “People always joked at how crazy it would be if we had twins. We thought, yeah, what are the odds of that? There’s no way. That will never happen. And… here we are… with three in diapers.”

Some said that with the ability to bust those odds, someone in that family should be playing the lottery.

The twins Tate and Emery who were born at 37 weeks are not yet a month old, and still fresh in Tori’s mind is the day she found out.

“So, on that day I went to the doctor, my husband Ricky (Hendren) wasn’t with me,” Tori said. “It was just a dating ultrasound to confirm the due date. He works at the vet clinic here in town and he was up on the mountains when I got my ultrasound, so I just texted him and said, ‘call me when you get back in service.’”

As the cell reception cooperated, Tori finally got to deliver the news to her husband.

“I said, ‘so, you know the thing that people are always joking about?’” she said. “’Yeah, that’s happening.’ And he goes, ‘nu-uh.’ We were both pretty much totally shocked. It’s been an adjustment for sure, but Jacob has still been going to day care, so we’ve gotten in a routine, but next week he’s going to be home with us, so we’re all adjusting. I also didn’t plan on having a c-section so that makes things tricky with Jacob. I can’t lift him yet.”

As the twins begin to grow older, each presents a different set of challenges. 

“They have no fear,” Kim said of their 7-year-olds. “I remember when they were two and I was doing the dishes and you just can’t turn your back for a second. And I hear, ‘BOOM’ and then they’d laugh and then they’d be quiet for a minute and I come into from the kitchen and they are climbing on the chair on to the dining room table and jumping off the end.”

Matt comments on the feeding of twins and explaining that feeding them both can be quite a challenge, while Kim remembers vividly.

“I can remember sitting on the floor with my legs crisscrossed with one baby in my lap,” Kim said. “With my other one in my arms, my elbow holding the bottle feeding one and my chin holding the bottle feeding the other one. Now they get to be seven and it doesn’t slow down, it’s still crazy.”

The parents of the Goertz siblings, Gregor and Cyndi Goertz certainly have their quivers full of grandchildren.

“When the first set of twins were born, we thought it was really a fluke,” Cindy said. “When Matt and Kim called and said that they were having twins, we thought, Oh my! And then when Tori called, I was in disbelief. It was truly unbelievable but very blessed.”

It kind of went without saying, although they did say it, that there were no more children in their future and they were going to fully enjoy the ones that God gave them.