A Phone Call Throws A Couple’s 9-Year Fertility Struggle Into Disarray

California residents Dennis and Carita Chen desperately tried to have a biological child for nine taxing years. Nearly a decade of negative pregnancy tests wore the aspiring parents down. They needed to try something new.

The duo eventually decided they couldn’t take any more disappointment, finally looking in to the adoption in 2012. They figured this would be an arduous process, possibly taking years to complete, but the Chens knew raising a child would be worth the wait.

While thinking about a foreign adoption, however, a friend set them up with an attorney who was looking specifically for an Asian couple to adopt a baby who was just about due. The Chens could hardly believe their luck — the timing was perfect!

A child on the way, Dennis and Carita felt a burst of life. It was finally happening! Until the baby’s birth mother changed her mind at the last second, wishing for a member of her own family to adopt the baby. The Chens were crushed.

Devoted Christians, the Chens prayed that God would gift them with a baby when the time was right. They figured a family just wasn’t in the cards for them at the moment. But would it ever be?

While starting a family felt hopeless, shortly after their most recent letdown, a hospital social worker called the Chens. The worker posed a question that left the duo with their jaws on the floor.

The social worker asked if they were still interested in adopting the baby. It turned out the birth mother’s plan of having one of her relatives adopt the baby fell through. The Chens were flabbergasted.

They needed someone to pinch them. The couple immediately flew from Austin, Texas, to Fresno, California, for their child-to-be. Anticipation was eating at them. Were finally going to be parents?

“No trip I’ve ever taken, regardless of distance, has felt longer than this one,” Dennis wrote on the couple’s blog. From Fresno, Dennis and Carita zoomed right over to Madera Community Hospital, where they would finally get to meet their little bundle of joy.

The time was 9:30 pm, and they were closer than ever to meeting their baby. Though the Chens were beyond ready to take on the challenge of raising a child, they were still terrified. It was all so nerve-wracking, but they were simultaneously at peace.

The couple felt such positive energy radiating from all of the hospital’s staff; they felt welcome. “The peace and joy that we’re feeling is absolute evidence of hundreds of people… that are praying for us tonight,” Carita said.

As they walked the halls of Madera Community Hospital, a nurse guided them to their future, asking them if they were excited to meet their… boy

“Yes, our son! We are excited beyond words. There is a child – a boy – somewhere in this hospital who needs a family and parents to love and protect him,” Dennis wrote of the blissful day on their blog.

“We are determined to be his parents,” the post continued. After nine painful years of consistent letdowns, the Chens were finally met with a miracle. It all felt unreal to them.

And it wasn’t long before said miracle emotionally hit the two of them like a ton of bricks. “I [found] myself weeping uncontrollably at the intensity of seeing my son for the first time.” Dennis wrote.

“At some point in those tears, I notice Carita clinging to my arm, hand over her mouth, crying along with me,” he continued in the post. They were flooded with an array of blissful emotions. They came there empty handed, and they’d be leaving with a beautiful son.

The nurse happily handed the Chens their sweet baby boy. Dennis and Carita looked at each other, each of them spewing happy tears like a garden fountain, simultaneously stating that his name would be Jacob.

The Austin Stone, “a New Testament church existing for the supremacy of the name and purpose of Jesus Christ,” as stated on its YouTube page, even made an inspiring short film documenting Dennis and Carita’s journey retrieving their new son from the hospital.

“All those prayers and all those waiting was for him, for Jacob, for our son,” Dennis wrote. The feeling was euphoric, and Dennis and Carita Chen forever thanked Him for him. Check out Carita and little four-year-old Jacob!