Imagine being a young family who, in a bit of an unexpected turn of events, ended up fostering 4 kids, got pregnant with another child, then adopted said foster kids, and then found out they were pregnant again... with quadruplets. All of this within a span of three years.
This is exactly what happened to a young couple from Reading, Pennsylvania who were at first having trouble conceiving and have now ended up with a massive 9-kid bundle of joy—nearly an entire football team!
Meet the Youngs, a family of 11 that has managed to go from having 0 kids to having 9 in only 3 years
Image credits: Maxine & Jacob Young
Meet Maxine Young (30) and her husband Jacob Young (32), who got married just four years ago, in 2016, and immediately wanted to get cracking on raising a family. Bored Panda got in touch with the Young family for an interview.
Foster care and adoption were in Maxine’s heart, so some classes and one approval later, the couple sorted out the documents to take two kids into foster care. But they soon received a call and were asked if they could take in another kid, a total of three siblings. Maxine didn’t hesitate and said yes even without talking to Jacob about it. It seemed overwhelming, yes, but separating them when they had already gone through so much was not an option.
The couple started off by fostering 4 kids who they ended up adopting some time later
Image credits: Maxine & Jacob Young
Well, the story doesn’t end there as the three kids now in Young’s foster care were actually 4 siblings. It wasn’t long until the couple received yet another call to take in the 4th sibling in the family—a baby sister. Maxine says that it was the best yes in her life as she has bonded with the baby sister, whose name is Elliot, very much—to such a degree that she jokes that she’s her true soulmate.
This was about the time that the couple were expecting one of their own kids, a son, after around two years of trying. He ended up being born in October of 2018. At this point, it was a family of seven, and it only became a solid seven when, after some time fostering 4 kids, they were finally able to fully adopt them.
Soon after adoption, they learned that they are expecting quadruplets
Image credits: Maxine & Jacob Young
But wait, there’s more. Months after officially adopting the 4 kids, the family found out that they were pregnant again. But, oh no, this was no ordinary pregnancy—this time, the couple was expecting quadruplets, another 4 kids.
Imagine that: as if it wasn’t hectic at home with 5 kids already, they were now expecting another 4, which brought the total number of kids to 9. The doctors were skeptical that the latest fourfold addition to the family would be a healthy one, but all four kids were born healthy earlier this year, in July.
Both Maxine and Jake always wanted a big family, so this was perfect. "I think initially when we talked about it we wanted at least four. After adopting our children and having our son, we knew we wanted another baby to complete our family. We just happened to be extremely blessed with four more!"
Before the quadruplets, the Youngs also had their own son whilst fostering the 4 siblings
Image credits: Maxine & Jacob Young
As you'd expect, having nine kids is a challenge in and of itself, but a challenge with a huge upside, as explained Maxine: "Having 9 kids is challenging at times, but more than the struggle is the beauty that comes with having so much love"
She continued: "The kids love each other so much, they are best friends and that’s a beautiful thing to see. It’s tough trying to allocate your time and make sure each child gets enough special one-on-one attention, but Jake and I bust our butts to make sure each of our children feel as loved and as special as they are."
"It’s difficult because that means no alone time for us as individuals or as a couple, but we try and remember this is only a season, soon they will be older and we will miss the fact that rely on us so much."
Image credits: Maxine & Jacob Young
It is natural to think that one's routine changes drastically once kids are involved, but as Maxine explains, it's not too different whether you have 3 kids or 9:
"Our daily routine is pretty much the same as that of the other families with only 2 or 3 kids. There’s just more bodies to wrangle," laughs Maxine. "We wake up around 7:30-ish, get everyone dressed, breakfast for the big kids—bottles for babies. We generally then play outside or go for a walk, come home and it’s lunch time (feed babies bottles), nap time, wake up and have a snack."
She continued: "Play some more and then it’s about time for dinner. We let the kids have screen time or watch TV while I make dinner. The babies are still eating every 3 hours and sleeping a lot, so that makes it easier. When they are mobile, I think that’s when it’s going to start getting interesting!" She laughs. "We read books before bed and I try and spend time with each kiddo in their rooms before bedtime."
"We have nine kids under 8 and it sounds even crazier when we say that we have eight under 5"
Image credits: Maxine & Jacob Young
As for help caring for all 9 kids, they do get some help, but manage to take care of it all alone for the most part: "We don’t have any help directly with the quads as we do all of their feeding, changing, and other things by ourselves. Nobody helps us overnight or anything like that. But, my mom will come up and hang out with the kids sometimes and Jake's mom will take Elle and Henry, our 2/3 year old, a couple mornings a week to give them some special time"
"We have always mostly done everything ourselves, even initially when we went from zero to four, we did it alone. We love being parents, we love our kids, so we are happy to be with them all the time. The chaos of a large family just works for us. It’s all we know. Where there is more chaos you will find more laughter, smiles and unconditional love."
Image credits: Maxine & Jacob Young
“I think most people that have nine kids have them more spread out,” Maxine mentioned in another interview with GMA. “We have nine kids under 8 and it sounds even crazier when we say that we have eight under 5. Jake and I always laugh because we’ll have a kid in every grade of middle school and high school one day.”
So, family roll call goes like this: besides Maxine and Jacob, there’s the four adopted kids Aiden (8), Parker (5), Connor (4), and Elliot (3); then there’s their son Henry (2) and the quadruplets Beck, Silas, Theo, and Cecilia, who are all 3 months old.
The kids' names are Aiden, Parker, Connor, Elliot, Henry, Beck, Silas, Theo, and Cecilia
Image credits: Maxine & Jacob Young
And though it is challenging to ensure every kid gets enough attention and love, the older kids are also eager to help out and the seemingly chaotic household quickly becomes a house brimming with love. As Maxine said so herself: “It's definitely chaotic and it’s definitely beautiful.”
The family has their own Instagram as well as a YouTube channel, so be sure to check it out and subscribe. But before you go, tell us your thoughts on this. If you have a bunch of kids or were raised in a huge family, why not let us know what it's like or congratulate the Youngs in the comment section below!
You can check out the family VLOG about the birth and the delivery below
Besides the congratulations, people showed heaps of support and sent their best wishes to the Youngs
