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After struggling with infertility, Mallory Jo Williams (27) and Michael Williams (30) from Pennsylvania in the USA went from having no children, to five children in a matter of two years.
This is all thanks to an adoption agency placing two young boys with them and fertility treatment giving them healthy triplet girls!
After two years of failing to conceive, the couple were given Chase and Dylan to foster in December 2016, while the children’s biological mothers were engaged in court proceedings to confirm if they were fit to look after their babies.
Through the many court appearances and monitored visits, Mallory and Michael continued with in vitro fertilisation (IVF) because Mallory, a former drug and alcohol therapist, longed to carry her own child.
However, their embryo transfer failed in July 2017 and they were booked for a frozen embryo transfer, which happened in September 2017 and was successful.
The couple was overjoyed at the prospect of extending their family, not knowing it would be growing by three more babies.
“Michael and I had always wanted to adopt since we began dating, so when we had trouble getting pregnant we figured it was destiny that we should go down that path,” Mallory said.
“We had to wait six months for our first placement, which felt like forever.”
Out of the blue one afternoon they received a call that in a few hours’ time the family services would be dropping off an eight-month-old boy named Chase.
“We were beyond excited and had to rush to make sure we had everything. This was a shelter call, which meant we were a temporary shelter until Chase went to court 48 hours later.”
Chase ended up going back to his biological mother, which crushed the couple.
“Not even three days later, we received a placement call for a six-week-old named Dylan. So, we went to visit him in hospital where he was detoxing from several substances and we fell in love with him instantly.
“As fate would have it, we got a call from the agency saying Chase’s court decision was overturned and he’d be re-entering the care system, so would we like to welcome him back? It was a unanimous yes!
“We were slightly overwhelmed to go from zero children to two in seven days.”
Mallory says fostering was the hardest thing she’s ever done.
“We treated Chase and Dylan like our own, but I was always terrified that someone would take my baby away. We lived from court date to court date.”
Mallory and Michael, who is a water supervisor for a company, didn’t give up hope that they would conceive their own child.
After exhausting available natural remedies, they agreed to do IVF.
The first of their seven embryos was implanted in July 2017, but unfortunately failed.
Two months later, they had two more embryos implanted, figuring the most unlikely situation would be to have twins.
“Every month was so depressing when I got my period. I cut out caffeine and alcohol in the hope it would help,” Mallory added.
“We tried conceiving naturally from October 2014, and eventually tried IVF in July 2017, and finally got pregnant from a frozen embryo transfer in September 2017.
“We said so many times that we didn’t care how many we had, we just wanted to get pregnant. But I thought I’d miscarried the night before our first ultrasound and I cried all day.
“The doctor told me to take it easy, she didn’t think I was miscarrying, but I would find out the next day, so I was prepared for the worst.
“The tech put my mind at ease saying, ‘Things look good, I’m just trying to get a picture of them smiling’ – she said ‘them’!
“We immediately thought it was twins, so we were very giddy when we were in the waiting room before seeing the doctor, who then told us it was triplets. All we could do was laugh!”
The girls were born on 7 May, named Avery Jo Williams, Emery Jo Williams and Bradley Jo Williams.
After dreaming of a family for so many years, the couple suddenly had their wish come true with five beautiful children under their roof.
They officially adopted Dylan on 29 June and are currently finalising the adoption of Chase to complete their family.
Source: Magazine Features
Pictures: CATERS/WWW.MAGAZINEFEATURES.CO.ZA
