Local Amish family celebrates 'double cousins'

In the gathering dusk, the porch of a house on a rural road outside of Libby is weighted with a family enjoying quiet conversation and rocking babies while older children search for a kitten in the garden at the side of the house.

Emily and Michael Yoder and Dora and Benjamin Girod are related in several unique layers above and beyond marriage, as Dora and Michael are brother and sister and Emily and Benjamin are brother and sister, making the baby boys in their arms — born five days apart and both the fourth children of each couple — what Michael Yoder calls “double cousins.”

“You see it more in Amish families,” Michael said. “I know at least one other set of double cousins, where two sets of siblings married.”

Although they all admit that their growing families and the business of summer and work mean they don’t get together as often as they would like, it’s clear that the families are close.

Emily and Dora have conspired to dress their baby sons in matching vests, and Michael said that he and Benjamin love to hunt together in the fall.

The couples were also married in the same year, 2005.

“They got married in May, and we got married in July,” Emily said. “And we were all attendants to each other’s wedding parties, so it was a busy year.”

The families also shared a licensed midwife for the home births of the boys, Joyce Vogel from Libby.

“I’ve had all but my oldest child with her,” Dora said. “And Emily has had all four of hers. We would definitely recommend her.”

With Dora due May 19 and Emily due June 3, the babies “could have been born on the same day,” said Dora, laughing. “We could have been fighting over the midwife. I think I would have said to Emily, ‘I was due first, so I get her.’”

“Besides,” Dora continued, “Michael always ends up delivering their babies anyway.”

Michael, sipping coffee beside his wife, shakes his head and smiles. “I have,” he said. “But not this last time. Emily made sure Joyce came right away.”

The decision to have home births is “not religious, but is traditional in Amish families,” Emily said.

Both couples agree that their families are not yet complete. Being in a supportive community where “it takes a village to raise a child,” as Michael said, means that both couples are open to growing their families.

“As they get older, yes they get easier,” Dora said, picking up Curtis and holding him tightly. “But I miss this little baby stage so much.”

Benjamin and Dora grew up in a family of nine siblings, mostly in Michigan. Benjamin said with a laugh “I have five sisters and I’ve survived.”

Before Michael runs off to help the older children search for the missing kitten, he said “We’re Amish, and Amish people have all kinds of kids so four for us is just getting started.”