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Carla and Paul Crozier, both 34 years old, met back when they were both just 16. It wasn’t long until they began their official relationship together and eventually got married several years down the road.
During their time together as a couple, they knew, more than anything, that they both wanted to start a life and family together.
Beginning in 2008, they decided to try having a child together. For five years, the Croziers tried to conceive naturally, but failed to do so. After consulting with a doctor, they realized that in order for them to ever have a child together, they would have to conceive through IVF.
The Crozier’s efforts very quickly paid off.
Not long after Carla began IVF treatment, she became pregnant with their first daughter whom they named Darcie.
But the couple wasn’t about to stop after having just one child. They continued to undergo IVF, but it seemed that their good fortune had waned.
Several cycles of IVF all proved to be unsuccessful. For the next three years, Carla and Paul were faced with constant disappointment and heartache.
In January 2015, Carla was able to become pregnant, but just five weeks later, she suffered from a miscarriage.
At that point, the Croziers had completely run through their entire savings and weren’t able to pay for another round of IVF to try to expand their family and give Darcie a little sibling. It was only through the generosity of their families, who provided them with almost $7,000 to fly abroad to Cyprus and try the IVF services there.
In Cyprus, compared to the UK, IVF services were cheaper and therefore more likely for the Croziers to access.
Their hopes in Cyprus, however, were also short-lived. In September 2015, Carla’s pregnancy once again ended with a miscarriage.
Her eight-week scan revealed her child no longer had a heartbeat.
For the next year, Carla and Paul decided to stop trying IVF. The letdowns were getting to be far too difficult to endure and they needed to find strength within themselves before they could even think about trying again.
When Carla and Paul finally agreed that they would give IVF their “last go,” they prepared for the moment by changing their lifestyle beforehand. They wanted to maximize their chances of having a child conceive, so they changed their diet, completely removed alcohol from their diets, and began going to the gym five times a week.
Their last step was to take out an almost $10,000 loan to pay for one last round of IVF treatment at the fertility clinic.
For several weeks, the couple waited with bated breath. And then, in September – good news.
Carla was pregnant. And not just with one kid. Two of the fertilized eggs had stayed, and they’d both ended up forming twins. An early ultrasound scan picked up three heartbeats on the monitor, and at the 12-week checkup, there were four.
The Croziers would not just welcome one child to the family – but four, two girls and two boys.
“I was in absolute shock when we found out. I still am,” Carla admitted. “It’s just crazy to think this has happened to us when we’ve had so much trouble just having one baby.”
The Crozier family is over the moon at their sudden wind of good fortune, but doctors are less excited. They fear that the likelihood of having all four children survive pregnancy and birth are low and suggest that the Croziers undergo “selective reduction” to increase the chances of two children surviving and “flourishing.”
After so many years of struggling to have children, however, the Croziers decided against the reduction process. They’ve decided to face the odds stacked against them and pray that all four of their future children make it.
Carla is now five months into her pregnancy and goes to the hospital every other week to have scans performed. Thankfully, all seems to be well for now, and the family is now preparing to have their lives completely changed very soon.
“I don’t know where they are all going to go or how we are going to cope, but I’ m not even thinking about that at the moment,” Carla admitted. “All I want is for them to get here safely first.”
