It was such a long road for the two sisters but it was time. They were finally at the hospital about to deliver joy to the world.
They were both overjoyed. It was finally going to happen, giving birth to twins on the very same day. It was no coincidence, they had planned it.
Joby and Annie Johnson had tried to have a baby for five long years. They had spent a fortune on fertility treatments, and they had nearly thrown in the towel.
The two were excited about the treatment and excitedly waited for the doctor to call with good news. They did call, but not with the results they were hoping for.
Annie and her sister Chrissy were always close to each other. But recently, Chrissy needed to help her sister out with the terrible news she had gotten.
Whenever a treatment didn’t work, Chrissy was right there for her. She would always be there to provide support through her darkest times. But this time she knew she could help in a different way.
“In 2008 we tried, in 2009 also; in 2010 was the in-vitro, and on paper, everything looked great, but we got the phone call with the bad news that I was not pregnant after that round, and that was the hardest call ever to receive” Annie remembers.
She decided to put her dreams on hold for a while. If it wasn’t in the cards for her, why keep trying? But then something she could never have expected happened.
All Annie wanted was children but when her last treatment failed she just couldn’t take it any longer.
Chrissy came by to comfort her after hearing about it. She decided that she would stop just comforting and take matters into her own hands. She then offered to do something for Annie that she would never forget.
“If there was just anything I could do to help, you know, I would do it,” Chrissy said to her sister. Annie teared up, she knew her sister always had her back.
The two sisters had gotten very close as they grew up together. But Annie still had no idea what proposal her sister had in mind. She wasn’t really suggesting it was she?
Even though Annie had trouble getting pregnant her sister Chrissy hadn’t. She had her own two boys and a loving husband.
Chrissy was lucky, she was able to give birth not once but twice and both went without any complications. She wanted to help her sister more than anything, but what did she have in mind?
Annie was persuaded to try it once more by Chrissy. Chrissy believed it would succeed this time, and two embryos were implanted by the doctor. She had a good feeling about this.
By some miracle, the procedure proved effective! Additionally, Chrissy was also expecting a child. These sisters had realized their dream and it all appeared to be a remarkable coincidence. But it didn’t end there.
Annie and Chrissy had their first ultrasound together. His disbelief was evident as he shared the news. “They found one in me, and then they moved over and saw another little sac with another flickering heartbeat, and we knew that we still had Chrissy left to go,” Annie remembers.
Interestingly, both sisters were pregnant at the same time. In addition, both of them were expecting twins!
Chrissy let Annie take center stage despite her previous pregnancy experience; after all, Annie had been trying to conceive for five years!
However, their simultaneous pregnancies and both expecting twins weren’t the only strange coincidence. The secret pact between them would soon come tumbling down.
One day, Chrissy went into labor. She couldn’t have been more excited to welcome the babies into the world. Tears rolled down Chrissy’s face when she finally got to meet the twins.
Annie, as always, was there by her side throughout the birth. But then, she felt something strange happening. Because the whole day had been so exciting, she chalked it up to nerves, but she was wrong.
As Annie sat by her recovering sister’s side and helped her with her babies, she felt a sharp pain jolt through her body… then another. The searing pain in her hips was nothing like she’d ever experienced before.
“This can’t be happening,” she whispered as she rushed to fetch a doctor. But it was happening.
The doctor checked Annie over and couldn’t believe it. She was in labor too! Annie and Chrissy gave birth to two sets of twins on the very same day, just hours apart. Chrissy delivered two healthy baby boys, and Annie gave birth to two beautiful girls.
Four babies came into the world that day. But when their father came to visit his daughters, he demanded answers.
After Annie’s final round of invitro had failed, Chrissy had an idea. She approached Annie and offered to be her surrogate if she would give it one more try.
At first, Annie was reluctant. She couldn’t put her sister through all that. But after discussing it with Joby, she decided to give it a try.
Chrissy wanted to be a surrogate for her sister. She went to get two of Annie’s embryos implanted, and Annie went along. As luck would have it, Annie was also at the right point in her cycle, so the doctor implanted two of Annie and Joby’s embryos inside her, too.
The sisters didn’t know if Annie’s pregnancy would take, so they decided to keep it hushed until they were sure.
When the big day arrived and both sisters went into labor on the same day, they knew that all four babies were technically Annie’s – and they were technically quadruplets.
The sisters were so overwhelmed with happiness that they couldn’t keep their tears at bay. “We still can’t believe it sometimes,” Annie said, “We’re very thankful for what she did for us. We’re very grateful and thankful that they’re all here.”
“Trying to get at least one baby, we are just so excited to take all four of them home and they’re all healthy,” Annie told Daily Mail UK.
She had been trying so hard for a baby for so long, and now she was blessed with twins! She still couldn’t believe it. But how had Annie convinced her to try her plan?
“I didn’t know if I could even be a surrogate or care for the baby but I did some research and found out I would be able to do so, and put it out there just as a consideration for the future,” Chrissy explained.
“If it ended up that Annie was not able to carry a baby then that is what was preventing them from having a child then I would do that for them.”
When Joby Johnson, Annie’s husband and the dad of all four babies, heard about Chrissy’s offer to be a surrogate, he immediately agreed.
But the fact that all four embryos had taken was something he hadn’t bargained for. The doctor had warned them, but they hadn’t listened.
“I was relieved, more than anything, that the babies were still developing,” Annie said. “My husband, I think, was thinking more down the road of what we were going to do with four babies.”
Thankfully, it all worked out perfectly in the end. And, luckily, Annie and Chrissie only lived seven houses away from each other.
“The doctor made sure that everyone was OK with the possibility of four babies because it was possible,” Annie said.
“But, for us, after trying for so long, we were just trying to increase our chances of getting at least one.” And, nine days later, they got the news. The embryo implants had been successful!
At first, Annie and Chrissie were cautious about celebrating. Too many times in the past, things had not gone as planned for Annie. They wanted to avoid further illusions and disappointment.
But, after a few months, and with their matching bellies growing, they allowed themselves to feel the excitement – the babies would be coming soon!
“I remember saying the day when Dr. Williams told us that we have a possibility of having two twin pregnancies,” Joby recalls.
“We said: ‘We haven’t been able to get pregnant for five years, so if the outcome of this is two twin pregnancies giving us quadruplets, bring it on.’ If the worst problem he can give us was now there would be four babies, we were ready.”
Because Annie and Chrissie lived so near one another, they went through their pregnancies together and supported one another throughout the process.
Because Chrissie had been pregnant before, she took her sister under her wing and guided her through every new phase. Chrissie and Annie’s parents decided to move in with Annie and Joby to help out when the babies arrived.
The Johnstons had everything ready for the babies when they arrived. They transformed the great room in their four-bedroom house into a temporary nursery until the babies would be big enough to start sleeping in their cribs.
“My sister was carrying the two boys, and she delivered first, so I could be there in the room for her when she had them,” Annie said. “Two hours later, at 9:30 a.m., I delivered the girls.”
All four babies; Charlie, Tommy, Gracie, and Haddie, came into the world healthy as could be. “We still can’t believe it sometimes,” Annie said.
These little bundles of joy are going to have too much fun growing up, and one day their parents will tell them about the crazy story of the sisterly love that started their lives.
When the babies were given the all-clear to go home, Chrissie moved in with Annie. Both Annie and Chrissie pumped breast milk – sharing the milk and feeding all four babies with bottles, which allowed “more hands to help,” Annie explained.
As soon as the babies are big enough, they’ll move upstairs to the nursery that was so lovingly prepared for them. But in the meantime…
They will enjoy each and every baby every single day. Annie and Joby could not believe their luck when their in vitro cycle came out positive, and just when they had given up!
This family is one in a million, and their story can’t be more incredible. Imagine the chances of all four embryos taking, and the sisters going into labor on the same day!
After five years of deep loss and disappointment, Annie finally got to fulfill her dream of having a big family of her own. After the initial few hectic weeks, Chrissie moved back into her home just seven houses away.
But, because the sisters are so close to one another physically and emotionally, they both dedicate most of their time to taking care of their four miracle babies.
Annie was lucky to have such a kind and compassionate sister who understood her struggle and decided to do something about it.
Not being able to conceive the child you’ve always wanted is a devastating blow to many. Annie had experienced feelings of shame, sorrow, and insufficiency. Unfortunately, a woman named Kayla Jones also knows these feelings well.
The tension was so thick in the couple’s bathroom that it could be cut with a knife. Kayla stood in absolute silence for a few moments, too anxious to even breathe. Her husband came up behind her and they both stared at the pregnancy test in utter disbelief.
But, no. She wasn’t mistaken. There were two pink lines, as clear as day. She turned to her husband and whispered, “She’s pregnant.”
29-year-old Kayla Jones had always wanted a big family, but she had known since she was just 17 that it was unlikely that she’d ever be a mom.
She and Cody married in 2012 and settled in Texarkana, Arkansas. They had two dogs and dreamed of having a baby to start growing their family, so they decided to try.
Kayla and Cody tried to fulfill their dreams of starting a family, but months went by without success. Something was wrong.
Kayla finally knew that it was time to face the facts and seek the help of a professional. But neither of them could ever have imagined how difficult things were about to get.
When Kayla visited her doctors and told them they wanted to start trying, she received the news she feared. The doctors confirmed what she already knew in her heart and shattered her dreams of becoming a parent.
When Kayla got the results from the tests back, she was devastated. Something that she had suffered through in her teenage years was the root of all their problems.
The Jones’ desperately wanted to have children of their own but had difficulties conceiving naturally.
Kayla was heartbroken and she felt terrible that she couldn’t give her husband the family he deserved. She eventually sucked up the courage to sit Cody down and start the difficult conversation that she had never wanted to have.
Up until this point, the couple had felt like their lives were going exactly as planned: they had met the person they wanted to spend their life with, got married… but now the final piece of the puzzle was painfully missing.
Sadly, at the age of 17, Kayla had undergone a procedure that would make it very difficult for her to bear children.
Cody suggested that they consider adopting, but Kayla had always dreamed of having a child of her own.
Despondent and growing desperate, the unlucky couple started to look at their other options, but they hadn’t given up hope yet. First, they decided to look into adoption. But after doing some research, they were faced with yet another obstacle between them and growing their family.
The legal fees for adoption were just too high for Cody and Kayla to afford. With the idea of adopting abandoned, they were still determined not to let go of their dream.
They began thinking about IVF, but if adoption was already too expensive, would this route be unfeasible, too? And what about Kayla’s condition?
“At the age of 17, I had a partial hysterectomy. Doctors found a tumor that was believed to be cancerous taking over my uterus,” Kayla explained.
“My uterus was removed and the biopsy came back benign. My ovaries did not have to be removed so I am still able to have a child biologically mine, but I am unable to carry the child myself.” The couple began to think about their last remaining option… surrogacy.
Kayla was extremely grateful to still have viable ovaries. But after a few tries with a few different willing surrogates, nothing worked.
After a few more of the surrogate options failed, the couple was forced to look a little closer to home for someone to carry their baby. But Kayla’s mother-in-law, Patty Resecker, wouldn’t hear of it.
Kayla’s 50-year-old mother-in-law had always joked that she would be their surrogate, but it was only after a few other failures that they decided to take her offer a little more seriously.
At first, the doctors were skeptical because of Patty’s age. It was only after a battery of tests that she was given the green light. “After much testing, my mother-in-law was cleared to carry our baby,” Kayla said.
Kayla and Cody started the IVF process in October 2016 and had an embryo transferred to Patty’s womb in March 2017. Unfortunately, it didn’t take.
In May 2017, after another round of IVF, Patty left a urine sample on her front porch before she left for work. Kayla picked it up so that she and Cody could test it at home. Would they finally have good news?
“I cannot describe the feeling of seeing two pink lines,” Kayla confessed. “I just knew it was going to work.”
After Kayla and Cody learned that they were finally pregnant, they decided to surprise Patty at work with the good news. “We told her we had not tested yet and drove to her work. We laid that test down in front of her and the tears started flowing.”
Fast forward to Dec. 30, 2017, and Kross Allen Jones was delivered by C-section, happy and healthy.
“I am so amazed at this sweet miracle. Having him via surrogacy was not always easy, and definitely not easy for Patty, but having him here makes all the hard days worth it.” And how did Patty feel about carrying her son and daughter-in-law’s baby for nine months?
“I’ve recently had the privilege of doing one of the most rewarding things: to carry my own grandchild for my son and daughter-in-law,” Patty confessed.
This is something that has blessed not only me and my family but also Kayla’s family. A child is a lifetime commitment and I knew there weren’t two more deserving people than them. To see them with Kross and see the parents they’re already becoming thrills my soul.”
