Currents News Staff
Maxine Young always knew that she wanted to adopt, but she never expected that her life would turn out quite like this.
“It was chaos,” Maxine said.
In July of 2017, she and her husband Jake got a call to foster four siblings, as part of an emergency placement.
“So we had to pick them up within a few hours,” Maxine said.
Her husband spoke about the time leading up to the moment it all happened.
“Also the preparation, we didn’t have nine months to prepare,” Jake said.
Then just a couple months later, Maxine found out she was pregnant.
“We went from zero to five within less than a year,” she said.
So they took things day by day, never expecting to add any more children to the mix.
But mere weeks after finalizing the adoption in December of 2019, Maxine and Jake were in for the surprise of a lifetime – Maxine was pregnant with quadruplets.
“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 and I was like, ‘Oh my God.'”
While they were excited, Maxine says, at same time, they were very worried.
“The doctors are worried about you, worried about the babies, worried about our other kids adding four more babies into the mix with a family of five already,” she said.
So ahead of the birth, the couple packed up their kids and headed out to Phoenix, Arizona, where they met with a specialist who deals with multiple births.
It was there that Maxine had the quadruplets at 32 weeks. On the weekend of Aug.29, they flew back on private medical planes to Berks County.
The babies, for now, are in the NICU at Reading Hospital.
“It’s been crazy, but I don’t think it’s hit just yet,” Jake said.
While they prepare to welcome the quadruplets home and begin life as a family of 11, Maxine and Jake say they’re both nervous and excited for the adventure to come.
“Luckily, they’re all doing really well and we’re really grateful,” Maxine said.