A North Carolina pastor and his wife brought twin boys into the world after a car accident killed their two young sons in 2015.
Hadley Eddings, the wife of Pastor Gentry Eddings, gave birth to two healthy boys, Isaiah Dobbs Eddings and Amos Reed Eddings, on Monday, WSOC reports.
The couple chose the twins’ middle names in honor of their late sons, Reed and Dobbs, who died in May 2015 in a four-car accident.
The family was on their way home to Charlotte after Gentry presided at his sister’s wedding in Topsail when a truck driver rear-ended them, killing their two-year-old son Dobbs and pre-born son Reed.
Hadley was 37 weeks pregnant with Reed at the time of the accident and had to have an emergency C-section to save the baby’s life, but Reed died two days later.
The driver, Matthew Deans, 28, pleaded guilty to two charges of misdemeanor death by vehicle and apologized to the couple at an emotional court hearing in September 2015. Deans was sentenced to 27 to 32 months behind bars for causing the accident.
Gentry, a pastor at Forest Hill Church in the Charlotte suburb of Ballantyne, told mourners at his parish that he and his wife forgave the driver and credited their faith as what got them through this challenge.
More than 6,000 people from around the globe shared their condolences with the Eddings family on a Facebook page the church set up for the family, and well-wishers raised $203,000 through GoFundMe to pay for their medical expenses at the time of the accident.
Gentry and Hadley requested that in honor of their son, people donate to Mission of Hope Haiti, an organization with which the couple has worked.
