DBU alumna enjoys multiple blessings with quintuplets

DALLAS—Imagine going through more than 200 diapers a week, countless bottles, bibs, outfits and innumerable cans of formula. That’s reality for Dallas Baptist University alumna Carrie Peterson Jones and her husband, Gavin, as they care for their 9-month-old quintuplets—Will, David, Marcie, Seth and Grace.

The Jones quintuplets—(left to right) David, Grace, Will, Marcie, and Seth—are the children of Dallas Baptist University alumna Carrie Jones and her husband, Gavin, who serve as missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators.The couple hoped their son Isaac would be able to grow up with a sibling. They never dreamed when they prayed for a second child God would give them five, but they do not doubt his sovereignty or timing.

As missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators, the Joneses are commissioned for service in Papua, New Guinea, where he has served as a helicopter pilot and she worked as a community health worker. In winter 2011, the couple and Isaac were on furlough in the United States when they found out about the babies on the way.

Doctors advised them to reduce the number of babies, but the couple adamantly refused. They saw each precious baby entrusted to their care as a gift from God. The couple understood that exponentially multiplying their family would bring its challenges, but the Joneses resolved God would sustain them.

Learning dependence on God

Carrie Jones learned dependence on God at an early age from her parents, Neal and Jane Peterson, as they served on the foreign mission field.

Throughout her life, she witnessed God’s provision, including during her undergraduate years at DBU, when she received scholarship money above what she could imagine to allow her to graduate debt-free. Knowing God to be faithful in the past, the Joneses felt confident he would be faithful in the future.

Neal Peterson, a DBU adjunct professor the past 15 years, and his wife, Jane, were among the first people to hear about the multiple pregnancy.

In the Lord’s hands

“When Carrie first informed us she was pregnant with quintuplets, we were concerned for her health and for the health of the babies,” Peterson said. “It caused us to pray a lot and reminded us, even as tiny as they were, the babies were in the Lord’s hands.”

The Petersons soon welcomed the growing Jones family into their home in Duncanville. As the family waited on the arrival of the quints, the pregnancy went well. Two weeks before delivery, doctors at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center of Dallas admitted Carrie Jones to the hospital for closer monitoring.

She went into labor at 27  weeks, which was a concern for her health and the health of the babies. However, last Aug. 9, they welcomed five tiny babies: Will Edward at 2 lbs. 10 oz.; David Stephen at 2 lbs. 6 oz.; Marcie Jane at 2 lbs. 0 oz.; Seth Jared at 2 lbs. 1 oz.; and Grace Elise at 1 lb. 12 oz.

For several months, the quintuplets stayed in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit as they developed and grew. “Under the excellent care of the doctors, the quints began to survive and thrive,” Neal Peterson recalled.

Blogging their progress

The babies’ parents chronicled their journey on a family blog that garnered national attention and more than 1 million page views. Throughout the trials, they continued to seek God and entrust their tiny babies into his hands.

A couple of weeks after the babies’ births, their mother wrote: “Please continue to pray for these babies. I didn’t realize until today how precarious their situation still is. The doctor really laid it out there for us. Naïve optimism is gone; we realize the Lord is these babies’ only hope for life on earth and for all eternity. He is greater than any challenge and sovereign over each atom of their being. Thank you for joining with us as their prayer warriors.”

As the months went by and the babies came home, it was clear the Joneses needed more space, and the Petersons needed less. When a duplex down the street became available, the Petersons decided to take out a mortgage and give their home to their children.

“Grandpadad” and “Grandma,” as they are known, remain involved in the day-to-day care of the quintuplets and provide support for the babies’ parents.

Now, all five babies are thriving. Their activity levels and need for interaction and attention keep their caregivers busy. Almost every moment, someone has a pressing need.

Although the nights can be long and the days full of constant caring for the quints, their parents express gratitude for the blessings God bestowed upon their family.

They also are eager to return to Papua, New Guinea, and continue their missionary work—this time with a few more family members in tow.