Davenport Quads prepare for individual lives

Editor’s Note: More than 16 years after her first interview of the Davenport family, former Frontiersman managing editor Victoria Naegele returned to their home to profile the Davenport Quadruplets. For the July 1996 article, Heather A. Resz, now managing editor, helped photograph the toddlers. This time, Frontiersman photographer Robert DeBerry provides the artwork.

WASILLA — The second-born son in a family of seven, Max Davenport admits there have been times he has mused about life as an only child.

“But only for a second,” said the firstborn of the Davenport quadruplets.

At Colony High, the four Wasilla siblings are often referred to simply as “the quads.” But 18-year-olds Max, Nathan, Aili and Daisey Davenport are on the cusp of setting out to chart their own courses as adults and individuals.

On June 18, 1994, when the babies were born at Providence Hospital, they were the first quadruplets born in Alaska. While they’ve largely stayed out of the media spotlight, the foursome has garnered some attention, including in the pages of their hometown newspaper when they were 2.

A week before Christmas, the teens and their parents, Lyle and Christine Davenport, sat down in the family’s home off Seldon Road to talk about growing up as — and raising — quads.

The best thing, the four teens agreed, is they always have each other.

They admitted the flip side of that togetherness is they are very seldom alone or alone with a parent.

“It’s nice to have your own space,” Aili said.

They were quick to agree on another downside.

“People view us as a collective group,” Nathan explained.

“And not as individuals,” added Max.

“Sometimes you want to feel [viewed] as an individual,” Nathan said.

Max and Nathan are identical twins, with the resulting confusions that can cause. Their sisters are not look-alikes.

Max isn’t shy about telling people he’s a quadruplet.

“I think it’s a fun thing to do in a conversation,” Max said with a smile.

His siblings prefer to let that bit of information come up later when making an acquaintance.

“It’s not a conversation starter I like to use,” Daisey said, flashing a look back at Max. “You want to establish who you are before that.”

Shaped by their past

Max has political aspirations and looks to major in political science at University of Alaska Anchorage.

Daisey plans to head to UAA with Max; she’s undecided on a major.

Both Aili, who wants to be a teacher, and Nathan, who plans a career in the ministry, aren’t sure where they will attend college. Wherever it is, it will likely be the same location.

“Wherever the Lord takes me,” Nathan said.

“I’d really like to go out of state,” Aili said. “I’m like Nathan; I’m going to pray about it.”

It is probably not a coincidence that as grade-schoolers, most years their mother paired Nathan with Aili and Max with Daisey in their classroom splits. It was an experiment, Christine conceded, and that was the most successful combination of sibling study-buddies.

The pairings were just one of a myriad of ways that Christine and Lyle managed the daunting task of raising four children of the same age, as well as their older brother Benjamin, nine years the quads’ senior.

Brother Ben is a favorite topic of the four younger Davenports, who stood up with their brother and sister-in-law, Jasmine, at their wedding in April 2011.

“We’re really close,” Aili said. “They are such important parts of what we’ve become.”

While Ben is on the top of their list of most-beloved mentors, along with their parents, the Davenports say they have been blessed by having many caring, guiding adults in their lives who have helped them stay grounded and grow as individuals, while providing the extra measure of help to kids whose one-on-one time with parents is stretched so thin.

Nathan refers to them as “an incredible, diverse group of adults shaping us,” and credits his parents with “surrounding us with good people to talk to.”

Some are relatives and extended family members who have helped since the foursome were babies. Others have mentored them at school or church as they grew.

“We’re individuals to them,” Aili said. “We would not be the Davenport quads without so many people putting work into us.”

“We try to put Christ first in everything we do,” Nathan said.

Andy Steele, who leads the Mat-Su Young Life program with his wife, Susan, has worked with Aili, Nathan and Max for two years.

“It’s really obvious they care about others around them,” Steele said. “They’ll have no problem being successful in whatever they do.”

Wasilla Bible Church Youth Pastor Luke Tegeler and his wife, Heather, have known the foursome through their high school years.

“Heather and I have been blessed by them,” Tegeler said.

“Our society is so self-centered,” Tegeler added. “Each of them is so other-focused. I’ve been very encouraged by each of their individual desires to serve other people. I think that will serve them well in the future.”

Tegeler remarked about how much the four siblings care about each other, and how well they work as a team. Not as a homogenous team, but rather as four distinct team members who bring different gifts to bear.

“In different ways, one of the four is looking out for the other three,” he explained. “It goes each direction. It’s really ne at to see.”

The closeness of quads

There may be little to compare with the closeness of quads.

“We’re really close,” Max said.

“As we’ve grown older, I think we’ve gotten closer — closer than most siblings,” Nathan said.

“We spend a lot of time together,” Daisey added.

They’ve gone sea kayaking together in British Columbia. They never miss the TV sitcom “The Office.”

“We bond over it and laugh,” Nathan said. T hey also plan movie nights. Time together is central to their lives.

“It’s just what we’ve always done,” Max said.

“We love each other,” Nathan said. “It’s easier when you go …”

“Somewhere new because you already know somebody,” Daisey said, finishing the thought for her brother.

“Somebody you already know and trust,” Max affirmed.

They have two or three friends who are best friends with all four of them.

Their activities at Wasilla Bible Church are also central to their lives.

“Youth group has helped us a lot to grow in our relationship,” Nathan said.

As opportunities open before them, they know they will step out into the world, not as the Davenport quads, but as Aili, Daisey, Nathan and Max. They know their divergent paths may stretch the bonds of quad closeness; they have no fear of drifting apart.

“We’ll make the effort,” Daisey said. “As far as our priorities go, I think that will be high on our list.”

“I don’t think it will be hard to stay close,” said Aili.

•••••

In any large family, finances can be an issue, but when four children are the same age, the financial hits can be more concentrated. One way Lyle and Christine mitigated outlays of time and money when it came to school projects and activities was to use the buddy system. Children were paired for classroom activities, and any extra activities were done one at a time.

“You can only afford so much,” said Lyle, who works on the Slope as a heavy-equipment mechanic.

“They had to learn to wait on a lot of things,” Christine said, explaining how they would try to group trips, even if it meant some of the kids were waiting for a sibling’s activities to finish.

Even with pairings and paring down the activities, Christine, who has worked as a teachers’ aide since the quads were in first grade, said she’s put a lot of miles on the car for the quads. Her record day was 150 miles — just local miles getting kids back and forth to Colony High eight miles away and other local spots.

“By the time they were driving, it was a nightmare,” Christine recalled.

Of course, driving brought its own nightmares — like the whopping jump in the Davenports’ insurance premiums.

Despite what could be a financial crunch to raise the quads and their older brother, the children said they never felt they were deprived.

“We’ve been given everything we ever needed,” Aili said.

“We’ve all been pretty content with what we have,” Nathan added.

“We’re blessed to have the things we need,” Aili said. “We’ve never gone without anything.”

With the foursome planning on heading to college next fall, the Davenports see another large financial hit heading their way. They face it with faith.

“It’s kind of like [when the quads began] driving — thinking about that,” Lyle said.

In 1996, when Christine talked about her hopes for her children, she remarked that “everything is abnormal about our lives” and she wondered if her four toddlers could have normal lives.

Do the quads feel “normal?”

“Completely,” they chimed in four-part harmony.

“Then that’s a good thing,” Christine said. “We’ve been successful.”