HOUSTON (July 20, 2016)

Mother holding baby - Nicole CotharnOne Houston area family recently got the chance to celebrate two special occasions at once when their newborn baby daughter made her appearance the exact same day as her great-grandmother’s 90th birthday.

Ever Cotharn was born on July 11 at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, weighing 6 pounds 10 ounces. Her parents, Trevor and Nicole Cotharn of Dickinson, Texas, were excited to welcome the latest addition to their family. Baby Ever is their fifth child, but their first girl.

“After having four boys, we figured that we were probably never going to have a girl, but when the nurse called to tell me the news that I was expecting a girl, I was just so excited, I couldn’t believe it,” Nicole Cotharn said. “That’s why we named her ‘Ever’ because we waited forever for her to arrive, and she will forever change our lives.”

Cotharn knew she was going to require a cesarean section for medical reasons, so when it came time to schedule the delivery, she already knew the date she would choose: the same day her great-grandmother, Maria Dolores Ruiz, was born exactly 90 years earlier.“What better way to honor our first baby girl than to have her share the same birthdate as the matriarch of our family?” Trevor Cotharn said. “For us, it’s such a beautiful tribute to a great woman who created such a wonderful legacy for all the women in the family.”

Baby Ever was delivered by Dr. Jerrie Refuerzo, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist with the The Fetal Center at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. Ruiz traveled nearly 400 miles from Brownsville in South Texas to be at Cotharn’s side, ready to be among the first in the family to hold the little girl who now shares her birthday. A photographer was there to capture the moment as four generations of women gathered together in Cotharn’s hospital suite for a special celebration of life.

“This is the best birthday present I’ve ever had,” Ruiz said, snuggling the baby girl in her arms. “I’m just so happy.”