A couple who lost their son in a forest fire are happy to welcome a miracle baby born to a surrogate mother.

In 2020, Jamie and Jacob Hyland narrowly survived a devastating wildfire in Okanogan County, Washington State. As the Daily Mail reports, they mourned not only their one-year-old son Uriel, who died in the flames, but also their unborn child, whom Jamie lost due to severe burns and a subsequent infection. The couple also learned that they could no longer have any more children naturally.

Almost four years after the tragedy, the couple experienced a small miracle. Thanks to a surrogate mother, they were able to give birth to a child. “There is something healing about a child laughing,” said the father. Shiloh’s birth was the result of four surrogacy attempts.

She was successfully implanted on her late brother’s birthday and was born in August 2023. “When she was born, she latched onto my breast and started nursing,” Jamie says. “I called Jacob and said, ‘She’s here! I was so happy.'”

Now they are raising funds for another surrogacy attempt using their last remaining embryo. “Right now, we are focused on enjoying Shiloh, raising money for our next baby, and planning our lives in general,” they shared on their GoFundMe page.

Forest fires also threaten Europe and could become more frequent in the future. This is reported by Tagesschau. According to a report by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), more than half a million hectares in the EU will be destroyed by forest fires by 2023.

This devastating toll corresponds to an area twice the size of Luxembourg and made 2023 one of the worst forest fire years in EU history. Only 2017 and 2022 were more devastating, with almost one million and around 800,000 hectares of burned area respectively.

Heavy rain, high water, flooding – the storm has southern Germany firmly in its grip. The water levels have reached the heights of a once-in-a-century flood. Dams are breaking. Places are being evacuated. Read everything you need to know in the weather ticker.

Many people can easily imagine spending their retirement abroad. However, the dream can also go really wrong, as in the case of Christine, who is stuck in Thailand.