'Every day's a new challenge'
<p>Cindy Barnett listens to her daughter Josie, 7, tell her a secret while her twin daughter Mariah plays with her pet guinea pig Friday at their home in Post Falls.</p>
<p>Cindy Barnett plays with her daughters Josie, center, and Mariah, both 7, Friday at their home in Post Falls.</p>
With two 7-year-olds at home and a full-time job to worry about, Cindy Barnett has plenty of irons in the fire.
"Every day's a new challenge," she said.
Her identical twin girls, Mariah and Josie, were born in Ogden, Utah, in August 2003. Unable to have children at the time due to medical reasons, Barnett adopted the twins from birth.
She was a new, single mother, taking her first steps into parenthood.
"I did not sleep ever," Barnett, 46, recalled. "You've got two to feed in the middle of the night. So I was like a zombie a lot of times."
One month before the twins were born, Barnett had moved to North Idaho. The family settled in, adjusting to life in a new place. Barnett soon connected with local moms at Twins & Company meetings.
The club, just for mothers of twins or triplets, gathers once every month at Mountain View Bible Church.
"I've been a part of that since the girls were (about) six months old," Barnett said. "They've been awesome. It's a good support group. It's nice to have other people you can relate to."
Club members shared their stories and tribulations. The moms got to know each other.
"Cindy is an inspiration to all our members," Annie Laker, president of Twins & Company, wrote in an email. "We often come to meetings talking about how challenging parenting twins can be, when most of us have a spouse that can help and support us. For Cindy it's always been just her. She acknowledges it's hard, but she isn't a complainer."
The mothers thought so highly of Barnett they named her Mother of the Year. She was recognized at a North West Association Mothers of Twins Clubs banquet in Vancouver, Wash., last week.
Mothers of the year from other clubs around the Northwest were also acknowledged at the banquet.
"She's very involved and active," Laker said of Barnett. "She's not the mom that stands on the sidelines. She jumps in and participates and does things with (the twins)."
In addition to caring for the twins, Barnett juggles a state job in Coeur d'Alene. It keeps her very busy.
Barnett, Mariah and Josie live in a Post Falls home with Cindy's mom, Marrilynn Shoemaker, who lends a welcome hand. Shoemaker recently moved in with her daughter to make things a little easier.
"She's my main support," Barnett said.
Blond-haired and blue-eyed, Mariah and Josie are best friends, attending the same class and doing almost everything together. They're athletic kids, too, both gymnasts at the Flip Factory.
"They love it. They're naturals," Barnett said. "They're skinny, strong, short girls. And they're active, so it's right up their alley - they can't sit still."
Raising twins isn't easy, especially for a single mom. The house gets dirty, the kids squabble. But without Mariah and Josie, Barnett said, without the wonderful chaos of two 7-year-old girls, life would be much less full.
And when it comes to parenthood, she offered some simple advice:
"Enjoy the journey. This is not supposed to be a chore, it's supposed to be a journey to enjoy. And who cares if the house is a mess."