LAKELAND — At 18, Dana Lee Luke found out she could not have children. She was diagnosed with mullerian agenesis, a rare condition where the mullerian ducts fail to develop and a uterus will not be present.

“I could barely see through my tears as I drove home alone that day,” she said.

“Aw, don’t worry about that,” her friend, Jane Phillips, told her when she found out the news. “I’ll have one for you.”

And 10 years later, she did ... two, in fact.

Fraternal twins Danica Grace and Kenlee Luke were delivered Jan. 25 in Macon by perineonatologist Dr. Mark Boddy.

Danica Grace weighed 5 1/2 pounds and was 18 inches long while Kenlee tipped the scales at 6 pounds 9 ounces and was 20 inches long.

“I did not know I could love someone (x2) so much (who) just came into my life,” Dana said by e-mail. “If it were not for Jane, my husband and I would have never got to experience this type of love and bond that makes our family complete.”

After Jane had the twins on a Friday night by C-section (after a complication arose), she returned to work on Tuesday for a few hours and was back on Wednesday.

“She is such a ‘trooper,’” Dana said. “She is doing great. ... She is sooooo amazing!”

Dana, 28, is a surgical tech and Jane, 36, is the office manager for Dr. Bruce Herrington in Lakeland. Dana had dated the brother of Jane’s husband, Patches Phillips, for a long time before they went their separate ways, but the young women remained friends. Dana married Jamie Luke in 2003.

“My wonderful husband and I dated for three years and have been married for more than four years,” Dana said. “After having these years to devote strictly to each other and our marriage, we began to really discuss our options for having a baby. Our options were slim: adoption or surrogacy, both which are very expensive. My husband has been very understanding and supportive since I first told him of my condition. He felt as I did, that if it was meant for us to have a child, God would provide a way.”

And He did through Jane Phillips, her friend of 14 years who has two children, Isabella, 7, and Garrett, 3.

“In 2004, I had my last child and told Dana if we were going to do it (the surrogacy), we needed to start working on it,” Jane said.

Jane read an article in People magazine about scholarships provided by INCIID (International Council on Infertility Information Dissemination) The Heart Program which covers some medicines and the invitro for childless couples.

“We had to fill out an 18-page application and tell why we were deserving of the scholarship,” Dana said.

In a letter to the foundation dated Feb. 7, 2006, Dana wrote, “As a young girl, I did not stand out from my friends. I was happy, healthy and full of energy. Like other little girls I played with dolls and pretended to be the ‘mommy’ and never gave one thought to what a massive gift having that title was ...

“(After learning she couldn’t have children) It was then that I realized being able to have a baby is a gift from God and not a guarantee. When I was given the news eight years ago that I could never have children, I was saddened even at such a young age. However, it was not until later on in life and after being married that this would take a great toll on my heart.

“I watched as my brother and sister-in-law started a family. I witnessed the great joy my parents experienced knowing they were going to be grandparents. I remember watching my sister-in-law’s ‘belly’ grow, seeing them shop for baby clothes, pick out baby names, and most of all watching her read ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting.’ It was then that I realized all the little joys that I would never experience by being pregnant. My nephew is now 2 1/2, and is my pride and joy. In April he will be welcoming his twin brothers. They, too, already have a special place in my heart,” Dana wrote in 2006.

Dana was giving Jane a ride home from their office on July 28, 2006, when they got the call they had landed one of nine scholarships given twice a year by INCIID The Heart Program.

“I almost didn’t answer my phone,” Dana recalled. “We screamed.”

Months of shots and medicine followed for both of them to get their bodies in sync.

INCIID The Heart Program asks physicians around the country to do the invitro for free. Dana and Jane had been matched to a clinic.

“Our options were New York or Las Vegas,” Dana said, “so we went to see a wonderful doctor in Las Vegas for two weeks straight.”

“They harvested four eggs from Dana which was a very low number,” Jane said.

“Two of them survived to be transferred to Jane,” Dana added.

Dana, Jamie and Jane returned home to anxiously await the first pregnancy test.

A week and a half later, they learned Jane was pregnant.

“I was very, very excited,” Dana said as we sat down with Jane for an interview after work the evening of Jan. 14 in their Lakeland office. “Everybody was. The whole town of Lakeland is excited for us. Every day we get calls at the office, ‘Has Jane had the babies yet?’”

A month after learning about the pregnancy, Dana and Jamie, Jane and Patches went to the first ultrasound.

“We could see two sacs and two little butterbeans,” Dana said. “My husband said he knew all along that it was twins, that Jane was fertile.”

Both eggs had taken.

“Even though they weren’t going home with him, Patches was excited, too,” Jane said.

Added Dana, “I was nervous about two, but my brother (Jammie Lee) had identical twins, and I knew my mother (Joann Lee) would help me.”

Incredibly, Jane worked to the very last day before the babies were to be induced Jan. 17. She spent the night that Wednesday with her husband and children and left for Macon around 4 a.m. Jan. 17 with Martha Phillips whom she calls her “mother-in-love.”

But the babies had other ideas about leaving their warm world and coming out into the bitter cold and rain. No coaxing could get them to appear on that Thursday or Friday. It would be later on Jan. 25 when they decided to meet their parents and the ones who made the great sacrifice for them.

The babies have been a part of Jane’s life for almost a year. “How will you handle the separation from the twins?,” she was asked in the Jan. 14 interview.

Jane laughed and said honestly, “I don’t know. We’ll find out. I think I’ll be all right because I’ll still get to be a part of their lives.

“(My daughter) Isabella understands that these are ‘Aunt’ Dana’s babies, and they go home with ‘Aunt’ Dana, but we get to see them whenever we want.”

Except for some headaches, Jane has had a relatively easy pregnancy.

Jamie, father of the twins, said Jan. 14, “... it is hard to express in words how much I appreciate this wonderful thing that Jane is doing for Dana and me. Nothing that we could ever do or say could possibly show how thankful we are to God and to Jane for this. The sacrifices that Jane and her family have made for Dana and me over the last 10 months are overwhelming. I can only imagine how hard it was being away from her children for two weeks while we were in Las Vegas and then not being able to go and do with them the way she had before.

“I’ve used this before in a letter to Jane, but it is the only way that I know how to express how I feel. The greatest sacrifice that there is, is life. We, as Americans, are free because of the sacrifice that men and women have given their life for this wonderful country of ours.

As those of Christian faith, we can be saved and have eternal life because of the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross for all sin, and because of the sacrifices of Jane and such a beautiful family, Dana and I will be able to fulfill our dream of having a family of our own.”

Everyone knew that daughter Danica’s middle name was going to be Grace “because we are getting them by the grace of God,” Dana said.

But Jamie and Dana kept Kenlee’s middle name secret until the very end: They told Jane her middle name will be Jane.