A 26-year-old mum with seven kids under the age of seven, including a "miracle" three sets of twins, has said she hasn't ruled out the idea of adding more children to her brood.
Melissa Harris was overjoyed when she found out she was expecting her first child, Alicen Harris, when she was 19. When she later fell pregnant with twins Jeremiah and Joseph Johnson she was stunned.
But the warehouse worker was amazed when just two months after giving birth to her first set of twins, she fell pregnant with another set of twins - Emily and Isaiah Johnson. The devoted mum from Jacksonville, Florida, tried for one more child to make an even six.
She simply couldn't believe her luck when she discovered she was having her third set of twins in a row - Dakota and Lillian Harris. Melissa said she was "blessed" to have had so many beautiful children, but given she was single during the birth of her last set of twins in October 2020, with limited support, she decided to get her tubes tied.
The mum-of-seven said her children "make life worth living", and now has a doting partner, 32-year-old Joseph Cope, and three step-children. Even though this means her brood is now 10-strong, Melissa said she hasn't ruled out extending her family in the near future with Joseph.
She described having so many youngsters as "wild", saying she's been dubbed a "super mum" for looking after so many. It costs her, on average, around $1,500 per month to feed so many hungry mouths.
"I think it's a miracle what's happened," Melissa said. "The last pregnancy was really what chopped my hat off because the chances of having one set alone was in the numbers, and then to have a second and then to wait almost two years and have a third - my mind was blown.
"I love my children. I was obviously blessed to have the opportunity to carry twins three times and I'm very thankful for that experience."
Melissa said all of her children were conceived naturally, and that eldest, Alicen, who's now seven, was birthed naturally while all the twins were delivered via c-section. She's since discovered that her family tree contains at least ten sets of twins, but nobody has had them in generations.
She said: "The first born child was obviously exciting in itself because going into motherhood was beautiful. I was a little shocked finding out about my first set of twins because me and the father didn't have knowledge of twins in our families.
"The second time I got pregnant with twins I was joking around like 'oh it's going to happen', or 'it won't happen because that's just my luck', but when the ultrasound showed twins again I was shocked.
"I tried for one more and of course seeing my luck as I've already had two sets of twins, my body was like 'you know what, I think a third set will do you good'. I guess my lucky number is seven because I've had seven beautiful children."
Despite having been sterilised after her last set of twins, the procedure can be reversed if Melissa wishes. She said: "I actually have my tubes tied right now because after my last set of twins, I was unfortunately left single and was really scared, so I didn't want to go through it alone again.
"I didn't really have any support except for my friends and a couple of family [members] so I wanted to protect myself in case something happened next time with someone who I didn't really want to have a kid with.
"But the man I've been seeing now is amazing. He has quite a few kids, we have three in our custody. We really like the big family aspect. We love our kids, they make life worth living.
"Maybe once we've found a bigger house in a few years and get the rest of the kids in school we might try and add more to our family but that's an 'in the future' type of thing, but I'm definitely not opposed to it.
"Once you have such a big family you get into this auto-pilot of 'make one plate, serve it, make another' and then you have a kitchen counter with tonnes of plates and cups of juice. I feel like a cafeteria lady, teacher and nurse, I might as well have a daycare certificate really. "
Currently, Melissa drives an SUV which can only fit six of her kids in, but she dreams of a 12-seater transit so she can fit all of her kids in at once. Now, the hard-working mum is fundraising for a transit van to make it easier to ferry her entire family around together. She's hoping to raise $10,000 to help toward the cost.
"It's wild having seven children under the age of seven," Melissa said. "Maybe there are some people out there that might have it a little better off and think 'hey, maybe she just needs a little hand'.
"And that's always welcome because I grew up with only one brother and my mum was able to drop us off at family of friends' all the time, and now I have seven and everyone's like 'I can't handle that, I can't do that'.
"A lot of my friends call me super mum or the twin mum, it means a lot but then sometimes I don't feel like super mum because we all have our bad days. No matter how many kids you have - one, five, seven, ten. It's hard."
