The Umezu family from Minnesota faced tragedies that few of us could imagine. In 2016, their second-born daughter named Charlotte passed away due to a rare genetic disorder. Two year later in 2018, Tracy Umezu and her husband Junji found out they were expecting twins, but one of the twins died in the womb at 10wks gestation, and then the other baby tragically died as well at 34 weeks gestation after Tracy’s experienced a placental abruption.

The couple’s eldest child, 9-year-old Sophie, was suddenly an only child, and would be for the foreseeable future since the Uzemu’s had struggled with infertility and became pregnant with the twins through in-vitro fertilization.

The series of tragic events for the family began in 2014 when Tracy became pregnant with Charlotte. Charlotte was born with a rare form of epilepsy associated with disruption of the SCN2A gene, and the couple were told by their doctors that Charlotte would not live past a few years of life.

The family created a list of things they wanted Charlotte to experience during the short time they would have with her, and they called this her “Joy List.” Speaking to TODAY PARENTS, Tracy Umezu said:

“We wanted to fill her life with as much joy as possible while she was here, so our family and friends made a list of things we wanted her to experience. We went to Hawaii, I pushed her in the Twin Cities marathon, we went to the zoo and had picnics.”

But in 2016, Charlotte began to seize uncontrollably and was subsequently put on life support. Nothing the doctors were trying were working at this point, so the Umezu’s made the heart-wrenching decision to take Charlotte off life support.

“She was suffering more than she was enjoying life,” said Umezu. “No medications were working, and she passed away fairly quickly.”

In 2018, two years after Charlotte’s death, the couple discovered they were expecting twins after enduring a year of fertility treatments. But tragedy soon visited the family once again.

“The second baby’s heartbeat stopped after 10 weeks, but I carried Maggie with relatively no complications,” Tracy said of the surviving Twin. “Then at 34 weeks, I lost consciousness and passed out on the floor at home. I almost didn’t survive. I had a complete placental abruption and Maggie died probably instantly.”

Tracy’s husband Junji suggested the pursue adoption since her doctors advised her against carrying a child herself again due to the severe complications with her twins. But at the time, Tracy was not ready emotionally or mentally to think about adoption.

“I had to come to a place where I didn’t define my worth by the number of living children I had and knew I was still a good mom whether I had one living child or five. I got to a place where, while it wasn’t the life I’d dreamed of, I knew there was more we could give our daughter if she was our only living child we had. I knew I would be OK if we just had Sophie.”

A year after she lost Maggie, Tracy took a trip to Israel with her church parish, and while there she met a doctor who assisted families through the adoption process. The nurse who helped care for Charlotte was coincidentally on the trip as well, and through a lot of good conversations with her fellow travelers, Tracy began to feel comfortable about he idea of adopting.

After returning home and speaking with Junji, the couple began the process of getting approved to adopt, and received their final approvals the week of the 4th anniversary of Charlotte’s death in November of 2020.

In February of this year, the couple received a call about a 2-day old baby in Florida named Jacob Benjamin, and after speaking with the birth mother and promising to keep the baby’s given name, Tracy, Junji, and headed to Florida to meet their new son.

“She said it’s ‘Jacob Benjamin,’ and Jacob is the name we have always had in mind for a boy,” said Umezu. “It was a pretty telling piece that this was meant to be for both her and for us.”

The family has spent the last month bonding with their newest addition, and enjoying the healing his presence has brought to their hearts. Their daughters will never be forgotten or replaced, but the peace and joy that has come with seeing a completely healthy baby thrive and grow under their care has been something the family hasn’t been able to experience since Sophie was a baby.

“Knowing that life can come out typical and normal and healthy is so awe-striking to us after all we’ve been through,” Tracy shares. “To look at him and know he has a brain that isn’t seizing and lungs that are breathing and a heart that is beating is such a miracle to us. It’s an overwhelming joy.”