Marriage and raising kids is a roller-coaster ride. Life comes at you fast, and when you finally are on firm ground, your whole life has changed.
Jacob and Maxine Young can very much relate. The couple, who got married in 2016, went from having zero children to nine of them in just four years. They shared their story with Good Morning America.
Maxine had always had a desire to adopt children. She learned more about foster care and decided she wanted to help in whatever way possible, even if it was temporary. It took two months of classes and paperwork for Jacob and Maxine to be cleared to be foster parents.
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Foster care brought four siblings into the couple's life. It was an adjustment, but they were in love. While raising their four, Maxine conceived via intrauterine insemination. The couple welcomed a son in October 2018 after trying to conceive for over two years.
With that, they thought their family was nearly complete. They contemplated adding one more child. Then they received a big shock when Maxine, who didn't think she could get pregnant naturally, discovered she was expecting quadruplets.
Jacob and Maxine Young's life has taken twists and turns beyond their wildest dreams. Maxine always wanted to adopt children. In looking into that process, she learned more about foster care and how many children were in need of more immediate help.
"After learning about foster care, it was always on my heart," she told Good Morning America.
"We started to take the foster care classes and were approved in about two months. Not even a month later, we got our first placement call."
At first, Jacob and Maxine determined they'd take in two children max. When a call came through asking if they would take three siblings under 4 years old, Maxine agreed without hesitation.
"I said yes we'll do it without even asking Jake," she laughed.
"It was really overwhelming. Going from zero to three kids is a lot, but they had already been through so much and lost so much that I didn't want to separate them."
They were taking care of the three siblings when they got another call. Jacob and Maxine were asked if they'd want to take in the children's fourth sibling, a baby girl named Elliot.
"We said yes to their baby sister and it was one of the best yesses of my life," Maxine said.
"Elliot and I are so close. I laugh with Jake that she is my real soulmate."
Behind the scenes, the couple had been working on conceiving a biological child as well. They tried to conceive for about two years before intrauterine insemination helped Maxine along. She announced her pregnancy with son Henry in April 2018. He was born that October.
In December 2019, the Youngs had another major moment. They were cleared to legally adopt the four siblings.
"We dove in head first, without knowing how to swim. It felt like all we did was tread water for the first few months. Slowly, very slowly we began to learn one another, we got into a rhythm of things and it became second nature. Life was normal, or as normal as having 4 children in foster care could be," Maxine wrote to celebrate the milestone.
"We had melted into a unit, we had become a family. Now don't get me wrong, there were hard days where we went to bed wondering how we could go on. Days where I woke up asking for forgiveness and a second chance to be a better mother, but those days are far outnumbered by the good days, the days where I can't wait to wake up and do it all again," she continued.
"YOU, you are the heroes of this world. The silent soldiers who make this world a better place just by being in it. I am in awe of you. All of you. You have shown me what matters in this world. You have given me glasses so that I could see the world through a different lens. Unrelentingly beautiful souls who have persevered through the toughest of circumstances and come out surprisingly kind and trusting. The world needs more people like you in it."
"Thank you for everything you have done for me. I am eternally grateful for the joy you have brought into my life, the love you have shown me, and the unimaginable strength you have displayed. I have had the most cherished honor of taking care of you, loving you, and protecting you for the past two and a half years. It has changed me. You have made me better, in every way possible," Maxine emotionally continued.
"Now I have the greatest honor of being your mama. You have given me the most meaningful and fulfilling role of my lifetime. Thank you for the forgiveness and grace you have shown me as I navigated my way through learning how to be a mother, for accepting me as I am, despite my flaws, and for showing me that wishes and miracles aren't only in the movies. You, all of you, you are magic."
There was a whole lot of love in the family of seven. Then they got a tremendous shock. Maxine, who thought she couldn't conceive naturally, was pregnant … with quadruplets.
"At first I was excited, but that quickly became nervousness," she admitted to GMA.
"The doctors made it seem like it would be impossible to have four healthy babies and wanted us to reduce. Once we accepted that it would be risky, we felt joy come back. All four of our babies were healthy. I'm so glad we went with our gut."
Jacob and Maxine welcomed the quadruplets in July. They had three boys — Silas, Theo, and Beck — and a girl, Cecilia.
"I think most people that have nine kids have them more spread out," Maxine joked.
"We have nine kids under 8 and it sounds even crazier when we say that we have eight under 5," she continued.
"Jake and I always laugh because we'll have a kid in every grade of middle school and high school one day."
Though it poses its challenges, so far the dynamic is incredible, and they wouldn't change a thing.
The older kids are having fun helping out with the babies.
"You never feel like there's not enough love in the house," Maxine said.
"They might not share the same blood but they love each other just as much and it's a beautiful thing to see."
