{"id":207801,"date":"2019-08-01T08:03:20","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T13:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=207801"},"modified":"2019-07-31T13:03:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T18:03:34","slug":"defying-odds-single-mom-grad-school-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/defying-odds-single-mom-grad-school-twins\/","title":{"rendered":"Defying the odds: Single mom earns two grad school degrees while raising twins"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Two major life events at once can be a challenge, especially if the challenge is two degrees. But Montoya Major decided to rise to the occasion, and when the added curveball of being pregnant at the same time was thrown in, she chose life: not just for one, but for her twins — <\/i>two\u00a0baby girls.<\/p>\n

Major wasn\u2019t expecting her life to be turned upside down when she left her home, family, and support system to pursue a dual degree program at Nova Southeastern University in 2017. It was going to be a tough program, but she knew she could make it. And after she got an unexpected positive pregnancy shortly after starting, and even after seeing two babies on her first ultrasound, she stuck to her belief.<\/p>\n

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Still, it was a shock. “I cried like there was no tomorrow. I didn’t know what I was going to do with one baby, and now two!” said Major, according to Today<\/a>. But she said yes to life and immediately set out to create a plan to achieve her dreams. \u201cGod has never put anything in my life he knew I could not handle and when I kept asking him for a blessing, he sent me two instead,\u201d she said in a Facebook post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0How Project Rosie helped a pregnant college student to choose life<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When laying out her plans, Major sought academic guidance from Nova Southeastern University. She was given two options by her advisor: take a year off from school, or carry on with her semester with no more than three weeks off and no special accomodations for her situation. Instead, she returned to classes only days after having a cesarean section for her two daughters, Makenna and Makinley. “I physically felt and looked terrible,\u201d she said. \u201cI had body aches and incision pain, not to mention the lack of sleep.”<\/p>\n