The young mom always wanted a big family that included biological and adoptive children and a house full of love and laughter.
For many people, having a big family is important but not possible to achieve naturally. Many women experience fertility issues and have to fight that battle with a brave face. Others get lucky and have their dreams come true.
A couple in Pennsylvania, Maxine and Jake Young, became the proud parents of nine children in three years after struggling to get pregnant. "Maxine always wanted to be a foster parent and had always dreamed of having a large family with adopted and biological children. Jake was completely on board and loved the idea of having a house filled with lots of love and laughter, maybe a little bit of chaos too!" wrote Arlette Young, Jake's mother, on a GoFundMe page.
They got married in May 2016 and knew that they wanted a family right away. They started the process of becoming foster parents by completing their training and taking in three siblings on July 28, 2017. The children were aged 4, 2, and 11 months, then. A month later, they brought home a fourth sibling, a newborn baby girl. Meanwhile, they were also trying to have a biological child, wrote Arlette. "They suffered multiple miscarriages, chemical pregnancies, a round of IVF and an IUI before they finally were blessed with their son, Henry, in October 2018," she said.
"They experienced many struggles along the way, lots of trauma to overcome, an Autism diagnosis, and various other challenges," she added.
The couple knew that they wanted their foster children to be part of their family and officially adopted them on December 20, 2019. "It was chaos," Maxine told WFMZ. "We went from zero to five within less than a year," she said.
They were taking things slow and didn't plan on having more kids immediately. They did want one more baby to complete their family but, destiny had a surprise in store for them. Their prayers were answered fourfold. Just weeks after finalizing the adoption, they learned that Maxine was pregnant again. Not just with one child but with quadruplets and without even trying.
"I didn't think that I could even get pregnant without doing IVF like I did with my son," Maxine said, "I remember texting him [Jake] and I was like 'Oh my God!'"
As happy as they were, the couple was also concerned. "The doctors are worried about the babies and [we were] worried about our other kids, adding four more babies into the mix with a family of five already," said the mother-of-nine, who runs a YouTube channel called The Family Young Vlogs.
They welcomed their babies on July 31, 2020, at 32 weeks and named them Silas Ledger, Theo Alexander, Beck Killian, and Cecilia Hudson. The children were born between 8 a.m. and 8:02 a.m., each weighing between three and four pounds, according to Daily Mail. Four of the babies had to spend some time in the NICU and two of them were able to go home during the first week of September.
"It’s been crazy, but I don’t think it’s hit us just yet," Jake said. "Luckily, they’re all doing really well, and we’re really grateful," Maxine added. "Meeting the babies was an indescribable moment. All of the struggles from the past few months were immediately forgotten, the pain and stress didn’t matter, in that moment, everything we have been through was worth it," she added on Facebook.
References:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/adoption-and-then-quadruplets-for-the-young-family
Cover Image Source: GoFundMe
