Singer and TV personality Adrienne Bailon and husband Israel Houghton are celebrating today, as the couple shared with fans that they’ve welcomed their first child. A little boy named Ever James, the couple revealed that they welcomed their son through a surrogate after five years of trying to expand their family.
“Our baby boy is here & we are so in love!” they wrote in a joint Instagram announcement. “If you have followed our love story… you know that our journey to baby has been very challenging – But God is true to His word and His promises.”
“We have quietly prayed while sitting on this most magnificent secret for the last 9 months. He is worth every tear, every disappointment, every delayed prayer, every IVF cycle, every miscarriage. Everything,” they added. “All we feel is joy and overwhelming love & gratitude. Grateful to God, to our angel surrogate and to all of our friends and family who have stood with us for over 5 years on this journey. He’s here and we have never been happier to lose sleep!”
As noted, this is the pair’s first child together. Houghton has five others, including three from his first marriage to Meleasa Houghton, and two other children from a relationship with a woman named DeVawn Moreno.
Bailon has been open for years about her desire to have children since the couple married, starting around 2017. And she also been open about the hurdles they’ve faced, while always being optimistic that things would work out.
“We get these bad notices and it’ll be like ‘and it didn’t work this time’ or you know, I’ve done multiple cycles of IVF and so many other things, and I’ll be sad for a day, like I literally will cry,’” she said earlier this year on The Real. “And like the next day, I know this sounds psychotic, I’ll be like, ‘OK, I found three new baby names.’ I don’t know why, I refuse to let this be the end of my story. I know that it’s not. And I love it that I tell myself, it’s not a question of will I be a mother, it’s a question of when. And I promised myself that I’m sticking to it [and] that it will happen.”
And it has. Congratulations to the happy couple on their newest addition!
