May 18, 2006

Together, the twins weighed less than three pounds at birth.
Parents Sandra and Orlando Calderon had been married for less than a year when Sandra became pregnant. She went into labor less than seven months later.

On Jan. 12, 2003, Sophia, born at 1 pound 10 ounces, died of a respiratory infection. She was 6 days old.

The family dressed Sophia in white. On the drive to the crematory, Sandra held her and wept.

Before they buried her ashes in a crypt in the National Sanctuary of Mary's Heart in Panama City, a priest told the family Sophia was a saint.

Told one way, the story of how Sophia';s twin, Orlandito, came from his home in Panama to a hospital in Minnesota to a shrine in La Crosse is one of coincidences.

Told the family's way, it's "about God," said Geny Augdahl, Sandra's sister, who lives in Minneapolis. "The bottom line is that it increased our faith."

Today, 3-year-old Orlandito, who is blind and faces a third round of surgery May 26, will be at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. With more than 60 others, he will be inducted by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke into the San Juan Diego Guild for Children.

After Sophia died, her twin spent more than five months in intensive care. He left the hospital in August, but returned in September.

Speaking about those days, Geny translated Sandra's Spanish via telephone.

She says that if she did not have faith in God, she would have gone crazy with the suffering, Geny, 37, said.

"If she didn't have faith in God, she would probably preferred that he would not have made it, maybe taken him off the ventilator. She says that never crossed her mind, but she thinks that would have been the case if she didn't have her Catholic faith.

Geny, who has lived in Minnesota for 17 years, is married with three children.

Through the University of Minnesota, she met Dr. Daniel Saltzman in the fall of 2003. Saltzman is from Panama and, after examining Orlandito, arranged to do surgery on him.

"Dr. Saltzman saved his life," Geny said.

But the family believes the baby made it for other reasons as well.

In September 2003, Orlandito's grandmother, Marina Espano, was flying back to Panama from Minnesota. On the airplane, she sat next to Sister Christa Marie Halligan of the Franciscan Sisters of the Martyr St. George, executive director of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse.

I mean, Sister Christa is a nun, so of course my mom is going to ask her to pray for Orlandito," Geny said.

Burke, then bishop of the La Crosse Diocese, also was on the plane. As they parted ways in Houston, Texas, Burke blessed Marina. Halligan and Marina stayed in touch by e-mail.

The day before Orlandito's surgery in Minnesota, Geny and Marina made a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse to pray for the boy.

Geny said meeting Saltzman, Halligan and Burke all were part of God's plan for Orlandito.

She said the family attributes their fortune to God's will, the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Sophia, who she called Orlandito's guardian angel.

"I think God took Sophia and left Orlandito for a reason and we're still finding out that reason," Geny said. It will be interesting to see God's plan when everything's said and done. He's just starting his journey.