These triplets were abandoned by their parents. What happened to them 14 years later (14 photos)

When these triplets were born, two of them were conjoined, making the rare occurrence of triplets even rarer.

Three sisters Macy, Mackenzie and Madeline were born in California, the first two of them were conjoined twins, which occurs approximately once in 200,000 births.

Unfortunately, the girls' parents abandoned them because they realized that they could not take care of such children, especially since they had problems with drug addiction.

But Jeff and Darla Garison took the girls into their family. They already had three sons, but they considered themselves strong enough to welcome three more girls with open arms.

That's how the girls lived - in a large family, on a farm in Iowa.

When the babies were nine months old, in September 2003, the Harrisons decided that they should live an ordinary life. Siamese twins went under a scalpel and 24 hours later they were two different people. Surgeons performed a successful operation to separate conjoined twins. As a result, each of the two girls has one leg left, but thanks to modern prosthetics they can walk independently.

This is exactly the case when choosing the lesser of two evils.

Two years after the operation, they officially became Harrisons. Brave and courageous girls who went through such a test at such a young age.

How wonderful it is to see them happy in a loving family who made every effort to separate them, but at the same time keep them together forever, giving them their last name.

“The girls are doing well because of their family,” says James Stein, the pediatric surgeon who performed the operation in Los Angeles, “because of their tenacity, their determination and their strength.”

“When you raise children who have medical conditions,” said Linda Cortis, co-founder of a foster care agency that placed the girls into families, “you treat them like children who will never grow up. You will take care of them all their lives, and they will adopt this model of behavior. But this is not about this family, everything is completely different here, in the Harrison family, each child is perceived as a separate unit of society.”

The girls who have gone through the most difficult trials in life thank their family in everything - their parents and three brothers, who are their protectors and teachers.

“We weren't sure what to expect,” says Darla Garrison, “but we just knew the girls needed someone who loved them. We fell in love with them when we saw them, and our boys jumped for joy when they found out that they would have three sisters.”

Now the girls are 14 years old. Like other teenagers, they are full of life, energy and zeal.