Years after a heartbreaking pregnancy loss during her first trimester, a Missouri woman and her husband opened up their doors to foster a toddler in need. Now, they’re in the process of adopting him.

For Ali Holland, 31, the path to parenthood has been long and full of challenges.

When Holland was 11, she started puberty and quickly developed ovarian cysts and endometriosis, which led to the removal of one fallopian tube.

At the time, she understandably wasn’t focused on becoming a mom and brushed off the idea of having kids, thinking she could always just adopt if she wanted to start a family.

After marrying her husband in 2018, the teacher decided to try and have a baby, but her health problems continued. She was diagnosed with 20 to 30 food allergies, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and an MTHFR gene mutation.

When she finally became pregnant in March 2022, the news came as a total surprise. Yes, her period was a couple of weeks late, but that wasn’t abnormal due to her PCOS.

After having a dream about being pregnant, she decided to take a test, just to be safe. It was positive.

However a short time later, “things felt weird” in her body. “The pain that was inside of me didn’t feel like the pain I Googled,” she says.

There were several times that the word “ectopic” (when a fertilized egg implants outside of a uterus, most commonly in the fallopian tube) popped into her head — but she says she shrugged it off, telling herself she was fine.

A month later, Holland was serving as the matron of honor at a friend’s wedding when she had “extreme pain.” Still, she initially chalked it up to overexertion and dismissed it.

On the drive back home with her parents, she and her mom stopped for food. Holland was craving ham — one of her food allergies — but thought she could take the anti-inflammatory drug Naproxen. Still, she felt severe cramping. The pain eventually eased, but she remained physically uncomfortable.

Almost two full weeks later, Holland — then 10 weeks pregnant — got an ultrasound.

She still remembers the young ultrasound tech telling her that she needed to grab someone else.  Once an older tech came in, Holland was able to see the baby’s heartbeat. Then the woman quickly turned the screen away and muted it. She told Holland, “We’re going to have someone look at this, but it doesn’t look good.”

It was only then that Holland learned the truth: Her baby, whom they’d already decided to name Gideon John, was bursting through her fallopian tube, and she was bleeding internally. They immediately wheeled her in for emergency surgery.

Following her pregnancy loss, Holland says over the next few months she and her husband talked about fostering — and that summer, they obtained their license.

They first got the chance to foster a pre-teen boy who was in an emergency situation, but taking care of a child with “that much trauma” brought up a lot of Holland’s own struggles, she admits. After almost a year in their care, he went to live with a family friend in the fall of 2023.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

In April 2024, Holland heard from her cousin about a young boy who needed a home. After telling her husband, she says he immediately said, “We should say yes.”

She was still unsure. Then she looked up what the toddler’s name meant.

Although Holland asked not to share his name for his biological family’s privacy, she shares that his first name means “God appointed” while his second name “means warrior, and is an Irish derivative of John. Altogether, it bore a striking resemblance to Gideon John, the name they picked out for the baby they lost. As Holland explained, Gideon is a warrior in the Bible, while John means God is gracious.

“This feels like a God dropping something in my lap moment,’ ” she recalls telling her husband of the similarities between the names. “‘I think we need to say yes to this.’ “

Now, over a year later, Holland says the “most loving” boy has helped her heal with “his little toddler silliness and the laughter and joy that he brings in.”

“I definitely believe that God helped me through it all,” Holland adds.

After petitioning the probate court in Missouri, the couple now has guardianship of the boy and is currently undergoing home studies as they wait for the formal adoption to be finalized.

Her story has even inspired the cleaning company Truly Free Home, which awarded her the inaugural “Mom of the Year” award.

As for the future, Holland says she’s looking forward to knowing that her 2-year-old son is theirs “forever.”

She says, “He’ll always be my kiddo in my heart, but to have him share the same last name, I look forward to that.”