During their engagement, Steve and Stephanie Powell of Louisville talked about how many children they wanted. Steve picked zero to two, and Stephanie preferred three or four. They ended up with six—five of whom were born within 3½ minutes of each other.
That made the Powell children the first surviving set of quintuplets born in Kentucky.
The babies attracted headlines when they were born on Oct. 28, 2001. Now 22, two will graduate this spring from Bellarmine University. Another graduated in December 2022 from Bellarmine and is now studying at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. Another owns a Culver’s restaurant in Louisville and is married, with one child and another on the way. Another has his emergency medical technician license and is interviewing for jobs.
The quintuplets entered this world weighing between 2 pounds, 4 ounces and 2 pounds, 12 ounces. It was two months before all got to go home from the hospital.
“We learned so much as we went, raising five children at once,” Steve said. “Yes, it was tough at times, but I would go through it all again.”
Five Babies in a Few Minutes
The Powells married on Nov. 13, 1998. Both were born in Louisville and are now 51. They came from small families: Steve had one brother, while Stephanie had no siblings.
The two met at St. Matthew’s Baptist Church but did not start dating until they attended a small get-together years later in 1997. Steve has a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Louisville, and Stephanie has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from UofL and a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Kentucky.
Steve now works in maintenance at Southeast Christian Church, and Stephanie is a nurse practitioner for Norton’s Pulmonary Specialists.
Before their third wedding anniversary arrived, the couple had five children.
The spontaneous conception of quintuplets is extremely rare: The average estimate is 1 in more than 60 million births. Fewer than 20 sets of quintuplets are born in the United States each year. Most recent quintuplet births are the result of assisted reproductive techniques such as fertility-enhancing drugs or in vitro fertilization.
The Powells used fertility drugs.
“I had an ultrasound early in the pregnancy and found quickly after the drug that we were having five babies,” Stephanie said. “Steve was a little shocked, and I was just happy.”
The Powells, to say the least, were excited.
At 30 weeks of pregnancy, the quintuplets were born. Stephanie had been on bed rest since July and was in the hospital for more than two months.
Jacob was the first born, followed by Jackson, Chloe, Samuel and Ella. Jacob and Jackson are identical twins.
Volunteers from Southeast Christian Church, the Powells’ home church, helped the couple take care of the five babies. The church provided a person around the clock at the Powell home for several months and diapers for about the first two years. Friends and neighbors, along with the church people, offered plenty of food. “The church was wonderful to us,” Stephanie said.
Growing Up as Quints
Steve and Stephanie generally could identify each child easily but admit they had some problems early on with the identical twins. “Each child had his or her own personality, and we tried to raise them as normally as we could,” Stephanie said.
In the early years, the children caught a lot of attention. People wanted to take their pictures. A TV network even invited the family onto a talk show about the quintuplets, but the Powells declined.
The children were home schooled and were avid readers.
They loved to play in a wooded area in the family’s big backyard. Other activities over the years included archery, dodgeball and soccer.
They had some toys but gravitated toward making up their own games. Several of the children volunteered at nonprofits, such as a Christian camp, during their high school years.
Stephanie survived teaching her children how to drive and getting their licenses. They paid for their own cars through work—mostly at fast-food restaurants.
Both parents taught their children about the Christian faith. They were involved in the church’s Bible Bowl, a quick recall program where students compete over their knowledge of scripture.
“Our faith is the most important thing to us,” Stephanie said. “That’s the thing I’m most proud about in all of this, and they still are walking with the Lord.”
The most difficult struggle for the family occurred in July 2014, when Jacob developed acute myeloid leukemia. “We thought early on that we were going to lose him,” Stephanie said. Jacob had to endure chemotherapy and more than 100 transfusions.
But he survived. And all five of them are thriving today.
The parents told the quints in middle school that they would help them with college expenses, but they could not afford to send all five at the same time. The children worked hard and obtained various scholarships and grants to make college a reality.
They got jobs when they were 15 and opened savings accounts.
The Adult Quints
All five Powell quintuplets enrolled at Bellarmine in the fall of 2020. They lived at home the first year of college, bringing to the school college credits they had already earned.
Bellarmine said in a Sept. 28, 2020, story that the quints did not plan to go to the same college. Each weighed options—local and regional, public and private—and, in the end, Bellarmine made the most sense for each of them.
The parents said they did not push the quints toward any particular college, but they liked their kids’ choice, with its small classes, navigable campus and proximity to home.
In his sophomore year, Jacob married. He and his wife, Autumn, have a child named Sadie, and another is on the way. He owns and operates a Culver’s restaurant on Hurstbourne Lane in Louisville.
Jackson, who will graduate from Bellarmine in May with a business degree, is a manager at the restaurant.
Chloe graduated from Bellarmine in December 2022 and is working on her master’s degree at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is thinking about working in student ministries. When she started at Bellarmine, she had a financial-aid package of $45,755 from seven scholarships and grants.
Samuel left Bellarmine and joined the Army Reserves. He has an EMT license and hopes to land a job soon.
Ella graduates from Bellarmine in May. She plans to be an intensive care nurse.
Watching his five siblings grow up is Henry Powell. He is 13. “He feels like he is one of the quintuplets,” Stephanie said.
All of the quints say they have enjoyed their unique life together.
“It’s been cozy,” Ella said. “There is a super cooperative spirit among us.”
“I love being in a big family,” Chloe said. “We’ve had some great adventures. I’ve enjoyed it.”
“There were times when people would approach us in public and ask who’s who,” Samuel said. “That would never annoy us. That’s just the way it was. It was OK.”
“I’ve enjoyed everything about being a quint,” Jackson said. “We are all friends.”
“Everyone treats each other as his or her own person,” Jacob said. “I learned a lot, and it helps me now as a father.”
‘Time Goes So Fast’
Steve said that he is proud of all his children. “I still am amazed at what has happened and what they have become,” he said. “We have enjoyed so much. The years go by so fast. Time goes so fast.
“We took many, many photos over the years, but I wish we had taken more—more videos—ways to always remind us of the good times we have had.”