Sisters Share Story Of Grace

It's said that twins share a bond more special than that of other siblings. In the case of Stephanie Yarber and Melanie Morgan, twin sisters from Alabama, it was that bond that helped create a life, and make medical history.

Morgan, already a mother of three, was as determined to help sister have a child as Yarber was to give birth to her own. They sat down with The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler for an exclusive interview to tell their story of love, sisterhood, and a medical miracle.

When Anna Grace Yarber was born on June 6 (7 pounds, 15 ounces of healthy baby girl), her mother was overjoyed and overwhelmed.

Stephanie Yarber says, "The first time that I'd seen her after I had her, I just cried. I couldn't say anything. The first thing I said is: 'Is she OK?' But that was after five or ten minutes of just crying."

They say every child is a miracle. But to understand the true miracle of Anna Grace's birth, a birth that made medical history, you have to first understand the love between two sisters.

Yarber and her identical twin, Morgan, grew up happily in northwestern Alabama. It was a childhood filled with Barbie dolls, softball, and each other.

Yarber says, "Softball we loved and then Melanie -- was it our sophomore year
that you quit?"

Morgan answers, "Well, I didn't go out one year."

Yarber continues, "She didn't go out, so I played a year without her, and it just wasn't the same. My heart wasn't into it anymore.

But softball was the least of the problems. At 14, Yarber began missing her periods.

She says, "When we went to the doctor, of course, the first thing they were checking for was pregnancy. And I thought was there another way to get pregnant that I don't know about?"

Yarber was not pregnant, far from it. She was diagnosed with a rare condition: premature menopause.

She says, "I mean, everything that a woman in menopause has, at 15, 16, I was experiencing it."

Yarber was told she would likely never carry a baby. At the time, it seemed like "no big deal."

"At 14, you don't think about having babies, or at least I didn't," she says.

But when she met and married Kevin Yarber, she wanted children. She tried in-vitro fertilization twice, using her sister's eggs.

Stephanie Yarber says, "We didn't even entertain the idea that it wasn't going to work. We thought if we stay positive and we said this is going to work, that it would work. And it didn't, so it was like someone just kicked us. It hurt."Morgan notes, "I was just stunned. And then I just bawled, and it was heartbreaking."

Stephanie Yarber would not give up. Internet research led her to Dr. Sherman Silber, an infertility specialist in St. Louis. Dr. Silber agreed to try something that had never been done in the U.S.: an ovary transplant.

For Stephanie Yarber, it was a last chance for pregnancy. For Melanie Morgan, it meant giving up an ovary for an untested yet groundbreaking procedure.

Morgan says, "I know she'd do it for me. But, I mean, this is what she wanted and if I went to her, whenever I went to her, we've always done the best that we could for each other."

So in April of last year, the sisters went into the operating room. Doctors removed Morgan's left ovary and split it. Tissue from that ovary was then grafted to Yarber's non-functioning ovaries. The idea? The healthy tissue would essentially jump-start Yarber's withered ovaries.

The day after the surgery, Yarber, Morgan and Dr. Silber appeared on The Early Show, and

"She should start to have menstruation sometime in the next three months," he said, "And at that point, she can get pregnant any time after that."

Sure enough, within five months of the surgery, the impossible came true. Yarber was pregnant. Her first call was to her sister.

"I was screaming and crying," Morgan says, "It just felt like, well, we had hit the lottery or something."

For the sisters, it's always been about "we" and Morgan was right by Yarber's side when Anna Grace was born.

Stephanie and Kevin Yarber hope to have more children someday. But for now, they are just grateful for their miracle baby. They say it was grace that gave them Anna Grace, the wisdom of doctors, the love of a sister.

Stephanie Yarber says, "For what she's done, there's nothing I can ever say or do to thank her enough. Of course, I know she doesn't feel like she has a whole lot that she's done, but it was Melanie, me, Kevin, and God that brought her here."

Morgan says, "She says things like that to me. She's quite sentimental."

Yarber interrupts, "You're going to make me cry if you look at me!"

Morgan continues, "We've just always been this way."

Having the same DNA allowed the twins to avoid the issue of organ rejection, which remains a hurdle to further ovary transplants, though the procedure has promise in helping women facing ovarian cancer.

Incidentally, Yarber and Morgan's doctors drastically reduced their fees to make this procedure possible.