Courtney and Eric Waldrop were hoping to add another child to join their three boys, but they never expected they would be adding six! According to People Magazine, the couple from Albertville were taken by surprise when they learned they would be having sextuplets.

“I was scared to death,” said Courtney, who is a first grade teacher. “I’m a smaller framed girl, and my first thoughts were on how I was going to successfully get six kids here without something happening to them or me. There was a lot of fear. We didn’t know what to do or think.”

The Waldrops met in middle school and have been together ever since. They always knew they wanted a big family but have experienced heartbreaking complications with some of their pregnancies. The couple welcomed their first son in December  2008. However, due to several miscarriages, their twin boys would have to be conceived with the help of fertility treatments. Wales and Bridge were born in January 2012.

At the beginning of 2017, the couple decided to try to add to their quickly growing family. They hoped to have another child without the assistance of treatment, but lost the baby to a miscarriage within a month. Courtney revealed the devastation that resulted from losing another child:

“It was devastating because I can get pregnant so easily, I just can’t hold on to them. It was upsetting, but we had experienced it before and I knew I had a medical issue that contributed to it.”

The couple’s doctor put them on a treatment that was supposed to minimize the chances of Courtney having more than two fetuses. However, when the couple arrived for an ultrasound in May, they were astonished to discover that she was carrying six! Courtney immediately began to feel uneasy as doctors explained to her all of the complications that could arise from carrying multiple babies, including strokes, high blood pressure spikes, UTI’s, gestational diabetes, and placenta issues.

The couple explained that despite the risks, they are confident that God will carry them and their family through the pregnancy.

“We are strong in our faith, but you never know how you’re going to feel when you’re actually in those shoes. When we let it go and turned it all over to [God], those fears—though we know the risks are still there—were lifted from us. They were haunting us and it was in our every thought.”

On August 26, the couple’s friends and family in Albertville will hold a nighttime 5k run to raise money for the family. Before the run, colored smoke bombs will reveal the genders of the six babies. As of right now, the couple hasn’t decided on any names, choosing to focus on the health of them and their family.

“I just want them to be healthy, healthy, healthy,” says Courtney. “That’s all I can ask for.”