A pregnant mother carrying twins was told one of her unborn children wouldn't make it, but she was comforted in a special way.

In a story from KWCH News in Kansas, Brittani McIntire and her husband Ian went to the hospital for the six-week sonogram where the doctors told them they would be having twins - one boy and one girl. Unfortunately, the boy had a hole in his heart and an abnormal brain. He weighed significantly less than his sister.

"He's only weighing nine ounces and his sister is over two pounds, so big size difference," Brittani told KWCH. "His only chance of survival would be heart surgery, but they wouldn't do heart surgery on him because of his brain."

But then an image captured by another sonogram showed something unexpected.

"We didn't really see much," Brittani said to KWCH. "She said there's his hand and there's her hand and it looks like they're holding hands."

The sonogram showed the boy's hand holding onto his sister's finger.

Brittani told KWCH that even though she's holding her son, she said her daughter can be there for her son in a way she wishes she could.

"She's the only one who can actually be there and holding onto him through it," Brittani said. "So it's comforting to know that if he does pass he won't be alone."

Ian told KWCH the picture is a special piece of his children together that will last forever.

"We're still going to trust in God that no matter what," Brittani said in the KWCH report. "He's been a blessing, and if he makes it then it's a huge testimony to what God can do. And if he doesn't then we have a special angel watching over us."

The post Dying twin holds his sister’s hand in special sonogram appeared first on FamilyToday.

People all around the United States are choosing what to give up for Lent, and thanks to their internet searches, we can see what things are the most popular in each state.

Google compiled data from all the states' internet searches to see what people in each state were choosing to abstain from while observing Lent. Any searches including the terms "Lent" and "give up" were used by Time magazine to create a map of the results.

According to the data, meat was the most popular thing to give up, taking the majority of the votes in eight of the states. This was followed closely by alcohol, which was the most-searched term in seven of the states. Sugar, chocolate, sweets, dairy and coffee made up the other food-related searches, which means 36 states are abstaining from eating or drinking something.

After the five states deciding to give up sex, the rest of the results vary greatly.

Netflix queues will be abandoned in Idaho, makeup-free faces will be seen in Kansas, and fear and self criticism will be absent in Oklahoma and Virginia. Also, your friends' social media accounts might be a little stagnant if they live in Georgia, Oregon, Massachusetts or Tennessee.

For more on the map and the methodology behind it, read the article on Time here.

The post appeared first on FamilyToday.

Instead of giving his heart to the woman he loved, a Canadian man gave his fiancee his kidney.

Literally, one of his internal organs is now doing whatever kidneys do for his future wife.

Christian Willenborg found out after a few dates with Errin Tollefson that she was currently on kidney dialysis and needed a donor, according to CBC in Canada. After seeing her get sick for the first time, he decided he would get tested to find out whether or not he would be able to donate.

According to WebMD, people who have lost around 85 to 90 percent of their kidney function need dialysis, often multiple times a week. Everyone needs at least one functioning kidney, and unless a person on dialysis receives a donor's kidney they will need to be on dialysis the rest of their life.

After Willenborg was tested, the doctors told him he was a perfect match. The National Kidney Foundation's website says blood tests, tissue typing and a special X-ray process are used to determine the quality of a match, which helps prevent the kidney being rejected by the patient's body.

"Twins are always a perfect match but for two non-family members to match nearly perfectly is relatively rare," Willenborg told CBC.

After hearing the good news, Willenborg said he went to buy an engagement ring.

The surgery was completed on Feb. 4. Willenborg stayed with Tollefson four days while she recovered. They have Valentine's Day plans, but according to CBC, Tollefson is keeping them secret to surprise Willenborg.

They are set to be married in August.

The post Man donates kidney to fiancee in ultimate Valentine’s gesture appeared first on FamilyToday.

The city of Sydney, Australia, is safe today thanks to the efforts of a brave 9-year-old hero.

With the help of Make-A-Wish Foundation, Domenic Pace was called to action by the New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione to become Iron Boy. Scipione needed Iron Boy's help to save the city and a kidnapped reporter from the villain Ultron.

"Iron Boy, we need your help," Scipione said in a video message to Pace, on Yahoo News Australia. "Make-A-Wish reporter Hope Joy has been kidnapped. Officers have confirmed that Clark Island has been overtaken by Ultron's henchmen and Hope Joy is being held captive."

After being picked up in a helicopter and briefed by police, he bravely battled evil henchmen, saved Hope Joy and defeated Ultron in front of the Sydney Opera House.

Robert Downey Jr., in character as Tony Stark, the real Iron Man, recorded a video message for Domenic to congratulate him and make him an honorary member of The Avengers.

"I hear you've had quite the day," Downey said in the video. "It's hard work saving the world, isn't it?"

He wished the boy the best and told him that Iron Man loved him.

According to Yahoo News, Scipione thanked Iron Boy on behalf of the police department and the citizens of Sydney and expressed his gratitude for being able to play a part.

"It can't be easy dealing with an illness like his and we feel privileged to be able to work with Make-A-Wish Australia to ensure his wish to be a famous superhero came true," Scipione said in the article.

Many others took to social media to show their support for Domenic using the #IronBoyAu hashtag.

According to the Make-A-Wish Australia website, Domenic has suffered from cystic fibrosis his whole life and has to have "hours of treatment every week."

In a video from Make-A-Wish, Domenic's mother described him as a caring child who is "more interested in helping children and other people rather than playing with toys."

She explained to Make-A-Wish her son's interest in Iron Man.

"From a young age he would only answer to Tony," she said on the site, referring to Tony Stark, Iron Man's real identity. "I guess the final straw was when he just sat up at the dinner table and said 'I am Iron Boy!'"

A similar wish was made true by Make-A-Wish when 5-year-old Miles Scott became "Batkid" in San Francisco. He also fought crime and saved a "damsel in distress."

The post Make-A-Wish helps ‘Iron Boy’ defeat super villain and save his city appeared first on FamilyToday.

Dating can be confusing, but these kids have all the advice you'll need to see success.

In a new YouTube series called "Kids On," children offer up dating tips addressing questions like how long a boy should wait to call a girl after he gets her number or how to get over your shyness in approaching someone.

"If I'm asking someone out, what should I text?" the host, Dave Keystone, asked a young boy in the third episode, to which the boy responds, "Hey want to go out sometime?"

"Just like that?"

Though some of the dating tips conflict (like waiting a year to call or calling that night), hearing such straightforward advice might make you think twice about your own dating methods.

Have you ever thought about asking someone to meet you at the town hall or practicing breathing exercises after a rejection text? Have you given consideration to how much you use your eyebrows when approaching someone in public?

The series goes to show putting young kids on the spot with your dating questions can yield some confident and interesting answers.

"I know you think I'm a kid and I'm kind of, like, not good with girls or whatever," one boy said. "I had four girlfriends when I'm 7. I know what it feels like."

New episodes come out every Tuesday and will surely offer plenty more dating wisdom and entertainment. Now go put the advice into practice and see how well it works.

The post One man asks children for dating advice – and their answers are priceless appeared first on FamilyToday.

The heart is generally understood to be the symbol of love, but if you want to be more accurate, you better start looking for a brain-shaped chocolate box for your Valentine.

That's because the brain is where all the chemical processes occur that give you the feelings of falling in, staying in and falling out of love.

An infographic from Scientific American shows a dozen separate areas of the brain where the neurotransmissions and chemical processes take place that lead to feelings of passionate, maternal and unconditional love. These chemicals each have specific jobs to do at different stages of love.

An article published in the Journal of Neurophysiology said "early-stage romantic love is a developed form of a mammalian drive to pursue preferred mates."� So when you start to develop a crush, your brain releases a chemical called dopamine, which is often associated with feelings of euphoria, motivation and energy. The areas in the brain working during these early romantic processes also happen to be the areas activated while using drugs like cocaine, which explains "the strength of the obsession." That's why the initial pursuit of a new love interest can feel so good and exciting, which keeps us coming back for more.

Adrenaline, norepinephrine and epinephrine are the chemicals that will keep us excited and feeling good about continuing a relationship, according to Fusion. They make us "addicted" and give us the feeling of being in love. All the while, dopamine continues to give us the feelings of euphoria.

Long-term attachment is caused by a chemical called oxytocin, which according to Scientific American is "crucial to how we form and maintain romantic relationships." Oxytocin can make people more sympathetic and supportive, and couples with high levels of oxytocin have better communication and fewer stress hormones. Researchers said oxytocin was "more involved in the communication component of love between couples than the romantic component of love." So while other chemicals might keep a relationship exciting, oxytocin makes it long-lasting.

But of course, sometimes love doesn't last that long.

A bad breakup can hurt. The same places in the brain related to the feelings of rejection and heartbreak are also related to physical pain. This means because the pain of a nasty separation really does hurt physically, you can take aspirin to get over it, according to a study reported on by New York Magazine. The study focused on individuals dealing with rejection and showed the people "who were on the painkiller reported a significant reduction in their daily hurt feelings."

So even if your special someone can make your heart beat faster by walking in the room, the feelings you have about him or her don't originate there.

Instead of telling your Valentine you love him or her from the bottom of your heart, say that you love them from your dorsolateral middle frontal gyrus. Is that romantic or what?

The post Tell your Valentine you love them from your occipitotemporal cortex appeared first on FamilyToday.

The modern tradition of exchanging printed Valentine's cards began in the 1840s with Esther A. Howland, or the "Mother of Valentine," according to History.com. Howland would decorate the cards with real lace and ribbons. Now, the Greeting Card Association says Valentine's Day cards are the second most popular greeting cards in the U.S., with around 145 million units purchased every year.

It seems, even a century ago, people were having trouble illustrating just how they felt on a romantic greeting card. The New York Public Library has an online gallery of Valentine's cards from the early days of mass-produced love letters. See if any of these cards have what it takes to woo your special person this Valentine's Day.

Train engine covered in flowers. / via NYPL Digital Collections

All aboard the Love Express! When a simple bouquet won't do the trick, nothing is sweeter than the scent of a big, purple flower train.

Valentine greetings. / via NYPL Digital Collections

Something about this is wildly romantic, I'm sure.

To my Valentine. / via NYPL Digital Collections

Now you know what to send the person who rejected you.

Heres a wireless telegram that I will send to you ... / via NYPL Digital Collections

Everyone loves winking, dogs and impeccably styled hair.

A message of true love. / via NYPL Digital Collections

True love is two cherubs playing tennis with the hearts of people you care about. Good rally, team.

To my Valentine. / via NYPL Digital Collections

Sneaking up on people while they slept on benches outdoors was the original Tinder.

To my Valentine. / via NYPL Digital Collections

"I just stopped by naked with my wheelbarrow full of hearts to say 'I love you.'"

Youst bane ma best fine girl. / via NYPL Digital Collections

Whatever this is trying to communicate, this boy doesn't look so sure of it.

These cards may have worked 100 years ago, but if you don't think they will be as effective now, keep your eye out for modern illustrations of affection this Valentine's Day.

The post These Valentine’s from 100 years ago show love has always been confusing appeared first on FamilyToday.

If you answered yes, you're not alone.

According to a survey from The Better Sleep Council, over a quarter of adults in relationships said they sleep better alone and 20 percent said they wish they could have separate master bedrooms.

Although women reported being more sensitive to their sleep environment, both men and women attributed their poor sleep to things like snoring or the tossing and turning of their partner or spouse. So for many couples, the obvious solution is for one person to vacate to a separate location.

Fortunately, there are some reasons separation at night could be beneficial for your relationship.

An infographic released by The Better Sleep Council said insufficient sleep can lead to marital dissatisfaction, and researchers have said quality of sleep is key to good relationships. Not to mention the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has named insufficient sleep a public health problem.

But before you move your blankets permanently to the guest bedroom or the sofa, there may be benefits to braving the kicking and snoring of your partner at night.

"The psychological benefits we get having closeness at night trump the objective costs of sleeping with a partner," said Wendy M. Troxel, an assistant professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, to the Wall Street Journal.

According to the article, shared sleep can promote feelings of safety and securitythat reduce stress and anxiety. Better sleep leads to better relationship interactions the next day for women, and inversely, better interactions lead to better sleep for men. Troxel said the benefits are still there even if sharing makes us move around more at night.

Clinical psychologist and marriage counselor William F. Harley Jr. told CNN he felt "sleeping together is a very, very important part of being integrated with each other."

For people having trouble sharing beds, the National Sleep Foundation has suggested things like purchasing a bigger or higher quality mattress. More space or a mattress that can absorb more of the motion of your partner can be beneficial for sleepers sensitive to movement. Each person using a separate blanket can keep one person from uncovering the other and also lets partners better control their own temperature.

The post A quarter of adults sleep better alone, but sharing with a spouse has benefits appeared first on FamilyToday.

The new "smart toy" industry, or toys that connect to mobile apps and wireless networks or store digital information, was an estimated $2.8 billion industry in 2015, according to Juniper Research. Toys like Mattel's Hello Barbie, Fisher Price's Smart Toy teddy bear, HereO GPS watch and several VTech devices have either been hacked or showed serious signs of vulnerability and possibility of security breach. This means information about children and their parents, including the whereabouts of their kids, could be out in the open.

VTech Holdings Limited announced on their website a breach of the Learning Lodge App database containing customer information last fall.

"Our customer database contains general user profile information including name, email address, encrypted password, secret question and answer for password retrieval, IP address, mailing address and download history," the announcement read.

The tech website Motherboard had an expert review the breach. According to an article reporting on the hacking, the stolen information "also includes the first names, genders and birthdays of more than 200,000 kids" and that "it's possible to link the children to their parents, exposing the kids' full identities and where they live."

The HereO GPS watch, advertised for kids 3 and up, says on their website it allows parents to "keep track of their young children's whereabouts at any time directly on their smartphone." Through the app, users can add other family members into their network. But according to research done by Rapid7 Community, due to inadequate protection, someone could "add their account to any family's group, with minimal notification that anything has gone wrong." This would allow the person with access to know "every family member's location, location history and be allowed to abuse other platform features as desired."

After Rapid7's analysis, HereO issued a press release announcing the loopholes had been resolved. Fisher Price also fixed bugs reported by Rapid7 in their Smart Toy teddy bear.

Similar concerns were raised over Hello Barbie's ability to listen and respond to a child and how the doll sends and receives information over the internet. According to a different Motherboard article, researchers uncovered "several flaws that could have allowed hackers to spy on children's conversations with the doll." These bugs were also fixed, said Motherboard.

Smart toys like these are rising in popularity. Juniper Research said smart toys are "emerging as the key market for toy vendors."

In the Motherboard article about Hello Barbie, a researcher from the security firm Bluebox Labs, Andrew Blaich, encouraged parents to be extra careful with these types of smart toys,

"As more and more stuff is connected to the network and we're sending more stuff to servers that we don't know where they may be located and what sort of security is on them, the best advice for parents is to be careful and be aware of what information they're sending through internet connected devices," said Blaich.

The post Some smart toys have dumb security flaws appeared first on FamilyToday.

Everyone in the world is one step closer to being personal acquaintances with Kevin Bacon.

The idea that anyone in the world has a connection to any other person by six degrees or less has been around for almost a century. The theory was made more popular when people used it as a game to connect other actors or themselves to Kevin Bacon. But now, according to a blog post from Facebook, six degrees may be too high a number.

After taking every user's Facebook friends list and crunching the numbers, researchers say a more accurate number would be around three and a half degrees.

Pick any person on Facebook, and you are somehow connected to him or her through less than four people.

"Imagine a person with 100 friends," the blog post read. "If each of his friends also has 100 friends, then the number of friends-of-friends will be 10,000. If each of those friends-of-friends also has 100 friends then the number of friends-of-friends-of-friends will be 1,000,000."

The number of connected people grows rapidly the more degrees away you are. And most Facebook users have more than 100 friends, so even that example is a modest one.

The explanation of how exactly they came up with the numbers is a bit more complicated, but luckily, they can find out your degrees of separation for you.

This just goes to show, the world really is smaller than we think.

Time to put an extra chair at the dinner table, just in case your old pal Kev Bacon decides to drop in.

The post New research shows Kevin Bacon is probably your friend’s friend’s friend appeared first on FamilyToday.