When mother-to-be Brittani McIntire of Hutchinson, Kan., discovered she was carrying twins, her joy was immediate, KWCH News reports. Yet, she soon learned what no expectant mother wants to hear; Madilyn and Mason, her unborn twins, were growing unevenly.

"He's only weighing nine ounces and his sister is over two pounds," McIntire told KWCH. Mason, her doctors sadly informed his mother, has a hole in his heart and an abnormal brain.

"His only chance of survival would be heart surgery but they wouldn't do heart surgery on him because of his brain,” she said. The bad news clouded her mood until Tuesday when McIntire went in for a sonogram appointment. Incredibly, the technician caught a touching moment in the lives of the unborn twins.

"We didn't really see much. [The technician] said, ‘There's his hand and there's her hand,’” McIntire explained. “And it looks like they're holding hands.”

In the black and white ultrasound photo, Mason appears to be clutching the finger of his big sister, Madilyn.

"Most twins, when [the technician is] trying to take pictures and stuff, they're kicking each other and hitting each other," McIntire said. With her twins, it seemed like the opposite with Madilyn protecting Mason, her smaller brother. Because the small boy may not survive long enough to know his family, McIntire said, this singular moment in his possibly brief life will be treasured by the entire family forever.