In 2013, Annie and Joby Johnston became parents to quadruplets after years of trying. Two of Annie and Chrissy’s babies were carried by a surrogate mother, who is also Annie’s sister. When Annie and Joby Johnston, both 34 at the time, were notified that their current round of reproductive treatments had failed yet again, it looked like the struggle was over.
Chrissy, Annie’s sister, came up with a creative solution. After doing some research, Chrissy realized that she could serve as a surrogate mother for Annie and Joby.
After some consideration, the couple decided to take Chrissy up on her offer, and Chrissy was inseminated with Annie’s fertilized eggs. She got pregnant quickly with twins.
As the situation appeared to be improving, the situation began to improve even more. In the opinion of fertility physicians, if a couple has difficulty conceiving gives up trying, they will have a better chance of becoming pregnant. This is exactly what happened to Annie and Joby. But wait, there’s more: it turned out that she, too, would give birth to twins.
Joby told the doctor they weren’t able to conceive for five years, so they were “ready for a new challenge.” “If the result is two twin pregnancies resulting in quadruplets, let it be,” he said. “We were prepared if the worst difficulty he could provide us with was four infants right now.”
Even more incredible, both sisters gave birth on the same day. Because Chrissy gave birth first, Annie was able to watch the birth of her two twin boys, Charles and Thomas. She then gave birth to twins Grace and Hadley.
All four quadruplets were born healthy, despite being born to two separate mothers.