Mackenzie Levasseur remembers how quiet and empty her home felt when she and her husband, Lovensky, were struggling with infertility.
“We wanted to be parents so badly,” Levasseur, 31, tells TODAY. “We had all this space and so much love to give, but it just wasn’t happening for us.”
After experiencing a devastating miscarriage, the Levasseurs spent seven years trying to have another baby.
“When that pregnancy ended, it shattered something in me, and it broke something in Lovensky,” Levasseur says. “He’s such a compassionate person. All he desires is for me to be happy, and it was such a hard season because he couldn’t fix it. Nobody could make it better, and you start to lose hope.”
Levasseur, the eldest of five siblings, missed the beautiful chaos of a big family. Her whole life she dreamed of being a mom. And every time Levasseur looked at Lovensky, 31, a worship pastor in Waverly, Iowa, she saw a man born to be a dad.
“We talked about doing IVF and fertility treatments, but we didn’t feel like that was going to be part of our story. And then we began having conversations around what it would look like if we started fostering,” Levasseur says.
The Levasseurs agreed they were being called to foster with the goal of reunifying children with their birth parents when it was safe enough to do so.
“Both of us wanted to turn our attention to things that were not about us,” she says. “We were very passionate about reunification.”
In April 2023, the Levasseurs, who were newly certified foster parents, received a call about a “very unique” case involving triplet newborns.
“They reached out to more seasoned foster care families first, but no one had room in their home for three,” Levasseur says. “The caseworker explained that if we couldn’t take three babies, they had separate houses lined up for them.”
The Levasseurs couldn’t fathom splitting up the brothers. They were already being separated from their birth mom. Without hesitation, they said yes to all three boys, giving them “L” names.
Lazarus and Leonardo were five days old when they were discharged from the hospital. A week later they were joined by brother Legend.
According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the average weight of a triplet at birth is around 4 pounds.
“Laz and Leon were just over 5 pounds, and Legend was just under 5,” Levasseur says.
Though their birth mother received no prenatal care and struggled with drugs, Lazarus, Leonardo and Legend were born healthy at 35 weeks gestation. The average duration of gestation for triplets is 32.5 weeks, according to a study published in Case Reports in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“All the nurses were calling them miracle babies,” Levasseur says.
Days later, another miracle. Levasseur’s period was late and she decided to take a pregnancy test. It was positive.
“I couldn’t have made this up in my wildest dreams. My husband is a pastor, we love Jesus, so for us it was like, ‘This is totally God’s doing,’” Levasseur says.
The triplets, who the Levasseurs adopted at 6 months, are now 19 months old. Their brother little Lennox will celebrate his first birthday in December.
“Lenny thinks he’s one of the triplets,” Lavasseur says with a chuckle. “It’s hilarious because Lenny is a big kid and he’s already wearing the same size clothes. And he’s trying so hard to walk right now so that he can keep up with them.”
Lazarus, Leonardo and Legend are just as enamored with Lennox and follow him around.
“One of the first words that they ever said was, ‘Lenny,’” Levasseur shares. “Our pediatrician calls them, ‘the quads.’”
These days, the Lavasseurs’ house is anything but quiet.