After getting married in 2016, Maxine and Jake Young were eager to start a family, but they had no idea that in just four years, they’d have quadruplets and be parents of nine. The couple also had a dream of having both biological and adopted children, so soon after becoming husband and wife, they began the process of becoming certified foster parents.
By 2017, the couple took in four children, all siblings. And within two years of being their foster parents, Maxine and Jake made the adoption official in 2019 after having already welcomed their first biological child into the world.
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4 Adoptions, 1 Singleton, & Quadruplets: This Is The Young Family
Maxine, Jake, and their five children were very excited to be a family of seven, especially after dreaming about having a large family one day. But then they were given news they never expected to receive.
According to the GoFundMe description written by Jake’s mother, ArLette, Jake and Maxine “loved the idea of having a house filled with lots of love and laughter, maybe a little bit of chaos too!” They just never imagined how big their family would get so quickly.
In 2017, Maxine and Jake took in a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old, and an 11-month-old before welcoming their newborn sibling less than a month later. “They experienced many struggles along the way, lots of trauma to overcome, an Autism diagnosis and various other challenges,” ArLette shared. “All the while, they were trying for a baby to join their family.”
And even the journey toward welcoming their first biological child was difficult. Before welcoming their son, Henry, in 2018, they endured miscarriages, chemical pregnancies, a round of IVF, and a round of IUI. But despite all the ups and downs, their home as a family of 7 was happy and they felt their household would be complete with one more.
Little did Maxine and Jake know that when they did get pregnant a second time, they wouldn’t just be conceiving one baby, they would conceive four. That right, earlier this year the Young family welcomed quadruplets into the world making them a family of 11.
“I didn’t even think that I could get pregnant without doing IVF or IUI, which we had to do with our son,” Maxine told WCJB after learning she was having quadruplets. “I remember texting [Jake] and was like, ‘Oh my God.’ The doctors are worried about you, worried about the babies. We were worried, too … about our other kids, adding four more babies to a family with five children already.”
And yes, even though she was scared, Maxine was willing to do whatever she needed to do in order to make sure all four of her babies thrived. She explained how her doctors reacted when they initially learned she was expecting quadruplets on Instagram.
“The doctor asked me to wait in the room and she brought another senior doctor in. They discussed all the risks with me and strongly encouraged me to consider a reduction. They told me the likelihood that all of our babies would be born healthy was not great and that selectively reducing would give the remaining babies a better chance, not to mention would be less risky for me. I knew before even talking to Jake that we would never go that route. They told me to speak with my husband and think about all of our options, that we had time to discuss it in depth because they normally do the reduction between 12 and 14 weeks. I explained to the doctors that I just didn’t think we could ever do that.”
By May, Maxine revealed on Instagram that they were expecting three boys and one girl. On July 31, at 32-weeks, Maxine went into labor. By August 1, she was introducing each of her quadruplets to her Instagram followers individually.
And by August 29, they were taking their quadruplets home, one by one. The first to come home was their youngest child, baby girl Cecilia Hudson. The following day, their firstborn, Silas Ledger, got to join his sister and five older siblings at home. On September 4, the tiniest baby, Theo Alexander, graduated from the NICU, and then three days after that, Beck Killian got to come home as well.
“There are times that Jake and I will look at each other and we know exactly what the other person is thinking. We have been doing a lot of that lately, I think it’s because we are thinking the exact same thing when we look at the babies, we can’t believe they are here, they are healthy and they are ours. It truly is an indescribable feeling.”
In fact, Maxine admitted on Instagram that she doesn’t want to jinx it “but this has been easier then I thought it was going to be, I think it’s because I am just so grateful that they are here and they are healthy,” she said. “I need to give the credit the babies they deserve, they have been pretty great so far so I’m sure that makes things easier. I just look at them and realize what’s important in this life. I’m the luckiest girl alive.”
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Nonetheless, while Maxine and Jack are extremely grateful for all of their quadruplets and five other blessings, it certainly will be quite the journey raising nine children on just one income. So as a way to help them out, ArLette created a GoFundMe account to raise money to aid in some of their expenses. So far, just over $8,000 has been raised.
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