I have talked about some of my children being very close in age a few times. I have even mentioned that sometimes people ask me if they are twins. This is partly because they have similar hair and eye color. We honestly didn’t plan to adopt children that all looked like birth siblings, it just turned out that way. We didn’t plan to create artificial twins either. The children were placed here in foster care and years later became available for adoption. When they originally were placed in our home, they actually had a return home plan. Obviously, they did not return home. After children have been in your home for a year or more, it seems natural to adopt them. Therefore, we did actually create artificial twins by adoption.

I hadn’t thought about it as artificial twinning until a few weeks ago. I was reading some information on the internet about adoption and came across an article on artificial twinning. That is when I realized that people might actually adopt children of the same age to create the illusion of twins.

Say, for example, that it is the family’s goal is to create the illusion of twins. Do they tell people that their children are twins? Does the family convince the adopted artificial twins that they are twins? I suppose this could be possible if the children were adopted at a young enough age. if they were not adopted at a young enough age, does the family get the “twins” to buy into the deceit.

We never pretended that our two oldest children were twins. They were in the same grade in school and had similar coloring so people sometimes asked. I always answered, “No, they are 22 days apart in age.” Of course, that statement always received strange looks. Sometimes I would say, “It was a long labor.”

Our 14 year olds look quite a bit alike as well, so they are frequently mistaken as twins, because they are the same age. They also have the same build, both very thin, and they both have blue eyes. Their names are very similar which adds to the illusion of their being twins. I think they would simultaneously combust on the spot if I ever insinuated that they were really twins.

Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2006