Nice to Meet Ya: The Cafferata Family

Dripping Springs’ population grew in the past few weeks and it made national news. Not because it is such a booming, pretty town (it is indeed) but because of the influx of four new residents. NBC’s Today Show featured the Cafferata family’s story on its morning show and they are now nationally known.

Four of them out of a family of seven happen to share the same birthday, the exact same day on January 18; and if you haven’t guessed it, they are quadruplets. How they got here in this time of ice storms and Covid is one to be cherished.

Bill and Starlyn Cafferata’s story begins a while back, starting in New Jersey. Both attended the College of New Jersey, but at different times. While visiting a friend, Bill met Starlyn, in the nursing program there, at a party. They were then married and moved eleven years ago to Texas.

“I got laid off and decided to go back to school,” he said. “She had family here [in Texas] while I went to grad school. Starlyn got a nursing job. We were homeless and living at an aunt’s house for a couple of weeks.”

Then eight years ago he got a job as a coach at Dripping Springs High School (DSHS) and now he sells real estate. Finally settled, they decided it was time to have a baby but had fertility struggles. Specialists were needed and finally their oldest, Zoe arrived through in vitro fertilization with one implanted embryo.

Another child was planned and the two’s last embryos were implanted successfully. “When they started the ultrasound, it looked way different than my daughter,” said Bill. “The doctor decided to have another look.”

“There’s four babies in there… the two eggs were both fertilized…one of three split into identical twins, from one to three to four overnight,” Bill said. “I thought, two heartbeats need a bigger house, another one, triplets, I started hyperventilating, another one, I started choking. The doctor said, ‘are you okay, I need you to lay back’… I got the news, came home, and (knowing the real estate market) bought a new home that day. I left a check and signed the paperwork.”

A new reality set in. “We had no choice, there was no ‘how are you going to do that.’ Just figure it out. It’s the new normal. We’re happy it’s not our first, now we know what to do,” Bill said.

Starlyn carried the babies to 31 weeks and three days. “She’s been a rock star throughout and is doing fantastic,” Bill said.

Then the snow and ice came. The babies remained at St. David's Women's Center of Texas' neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). “My wife was really broken up and it was hard for me as well. But they were getting the best care there. We had no power in the house.”

Since last week, two babies were home and two are still in the NICU to get their weight up. “With the pandemic and Covid only one parent can go at a time. There are so many levels of stuff to go through,” Bill said.

The babies are Stella and Enzo, who are fraternal twins, while Francesca and Lennon are identical. The couple wanted to have different sounding names for the identical twins so they let two yearold Zoe name one. “She kept repeating, Lennon, Lennon, Lennon.”

Since the quadruplets’ birth, the family has been on NBC and ABC, Telemundo, local TV stations and numerous magazines including one in Norway. But life tries to go back to the new normal for the Cafferatas.

“I’ve been at Keller-Williams Realty five years now… and I’m trying to get that rolling.”

If you are looking for real estate in the area, you can contact Bill Cafferata at (512) 230-4497. And facebook.com/billcafferata. Bill is also the athletic coach of the DSHS lacrosse team, which is currently undefeated.