Triple your pleasure with the Adams family

By John Loesing Acorn Staff Writer

MICHAEL COONS/The Acorn ACHIEVERS--The Adams triplets, Sean, left, Craig, center, and Jon have excelled in sports at Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village. Like many seniors, they'll be leaving home for college this fall.

Usually three’s a crowd, but Sean, Craig and Jonathan Adams of Agoura Hills are about as close as siblings can be. Fine athletes and good students, the threesome have all become outstanding young men.

In August, however, the triplets will be leaving home and heading off to college.

Left in their wake will be middle-age parents Kim and Dave, sitting in an empty nest and pondering what just hit them. The transition won’t be easy, said mom and dad. Losing the three boys all at one time is going to be hard. But raising them wasn’t easy either.

"They had to keep us on a leash at times." said Jonathan, the oldest triplet by a few minutes.

Literally, on a leash.

Three 3 year olds—the parents never had a chance.

Three 10 year olds—Kim and Dave weren’t parents, they were

referees.

And three 16 year olds—thanks but no thanks,

"I tell people I’ve had 54 years of bringing up kids all at once," Dave said. "Eighteen times three."

So now the boys have reached 18. Big, brawny, still scuffling with each another and still calling each other out—yet ultimately all on the same side.

Connected for now and always.

"It was crazy, but we’ve just been real fortunate that they’ve been good kids," said the father, who’s the city manager of Agoura Hills. Kim Adams, their mother, is a special education teacher at Lindero Canyon Middle School.

The boys were born in San Diego and the family moved to Agoura eight years ago.

"We describe (having triplets) as something I wouldn’t wish on anybody, but something I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world," Dave said.

Jonathan is a beefy 5-feet 10-inches tall and the most valuable player on the Oaks Christian football team last season. Sean and Craig, like their dad, are almost 6-feet-4, so it’s hard to believe that boys weighed only a combined 10 pounds when they were born.

Ten weeks premature, each boy tipped the scales at just over 3 pounds.

Now almost fully grown, Sean and Craig looked like twins with their light hair and light complexion. Jonathan is darker and has a look all his own. It’s hard to tell he’s even one of the three.

"We kid Jon that he’s adopted," said Craig, yet it was Craig and Jon who often teamed up on Sean.

Sean is the smiley, happy-go-lucky one. Craig tends to be more introspective, while Jon is the outspoken leader. "He’s mister outgoing," the dad said. "The other two tend to be more shy."

In reality, it’s surprising that the boys look as much alike as they do, said their mother.

"It’s more common to have three siblings that are different," Kim pointed out. "It’s less common to have two and one, and then it’s even less common to have identical triplets. The chances of one egg splitting three ways are very rare."

Why Kim had triplets isn’t hard to understand. The couple didn’t use fertility drugs and the childbirth was natural, but Kim had sisters who are twins, a grandmother who’s a twin and cousins who are twins. Her having triplets was a fait accompli. She knew the outcome by her second trimester.

Stranger still, the boys’ birthday is Dec. 19, only six days before Christmas. Talk about identity crisis.

"The stockings would be filled with the same stuff," Jon said. "(Mom and dad) always made it a point to be fair."

"One year we were fed up so we just split up our birthdays," Craig recalled.

As for the wearing the same clothes and the other typical stuff triplets go through, mom said it was never her intention to make the boys alike.

When Sean, Crag and Jon became old enough to drive, they got one car, not three—smart parents.

The decision allowed the family to have enough money so the boys could attend private school.

Although much of what they do is the same—all three belong to the Calvary Church Youth Group, for example—the boys share distinct likes and dislikes, dreams and desires. Jon will attend Baylor University in Texas where he plans to become a walk-on football player and study accounting.

"He’s just very consistent," said Bill Redell, Jon’s coach at Oaks Christian. "You could always depend on him and he was like a coach on the field."

Sean, the team’s leading pass receiver last season, has his sights set on Sacramento State University where he plans to join the Reserve Officers Training Corps and become an Air Force pilot.

Redell’s son is a major in the elite Air Force Thunderbird squadron and gave Sean a few tips about life with airplanes. "I’ve always been into the military and love being up in the air," Sean said.

Craig, one of the stars on the Oaks Christian CIF championship basketball team, is headed for Azusa Pacific University where many of his high school friends are attending.

"We left it up to them (where to go to college) and a lot of people are surprised they don’t want to go together, but if you stop and think about spending every day of your life for 18 years with somebody," Dave said, then it makes sense to want to get away. "To this day people try to group them together, but they all have separate groups of friends and run in different circles," he said.

"We’re kind of done with each other," said Craig matter-of-factly, but not intending to be mean.

The other two didn’t disagree.

Once in college, they may not ever write, but they’ll probably e-mail. They won’t shout at each other anymore, but you can bet the telephone conversations will be flying.

Connected for now and always.

Meanwhile, back in Agoura Hills …

"It’s going to be pretty quiet around here," said Sean.

"I think it will be hardest on mom," he said. "She’ll cry at graduation and she’ll cry three separate times when we leave."

"I’m already suffering from empty nest syndrome," said Kim, pulling out the first of three Kleenex.