by Michelle Stein posted in Parenting

High school sweethearts Jason and Heather Kroeger had always wanted a big family. So when the North Carolina couple learned Heather was pregnant with their sixth child, they were thrilled. Late in the first trimester, though, it was discovered she was carrying conjoined twin boys ? and they were advised by doctors to abort them.
?To us, it wasn?t an option,? Jason told Fox 19 News. ?There is that initial shock, and a lot goes through your head, but pretty quickly we came to the realization these are our boys, and we've got to do what we can do for them.?

Unfortunately, the hospital near their home simply wasn't equipped to handle Heather's high-risk delivery. So by the time she was 35 weeks along, the family of seven ? including their five children  between ages 4 and 17 ? needed to travel 421 miles to Cincinnati, Ohio. It was at that time that a group of friends came together to give the Kroeger family $500 toward gas and gift cards for food to help them get there. Elijah and Isaac were born on September 5th at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Since their arrival, doctors have determined the twins, who are conjoined at the chest, can't be safely separated. They have already undergone surgery and still have some medical issues to get through. But overall, the boys are doing better than expected.

That's because the likelihood of Elijah and Isaac surviving past birth was slim. Yet, so far, these little fighters have managed to beat...