“‘I want to build us a van to live in. We can show our kid the world.’ I wish I remembered exactly what he said—I was rage-deaf by that point—but it was something like that. That was the moment I knew we weren’t going to raise this baby.”
‘I’m sitting on my bed, in my teenage bedroom, at my mother’s house. It’s 3 days after I found out I got knocked up by the first guy I ever met from Tinder.’
‘Hear me out, before you say anything.’ Those are the first words I heard. ‘It’s a girl and she’s due next month.’ I could barely speak.’
“My husband cut me off mid-sentence and simply said, ‘Yes, this is our daughter.’ Before we hung up, I could hear him telling everyone around him, ‘I’m going to be a dad.’”
‘You can touch him if you want,’ the doctor said after our son was delivered. Our son. A child that just 3 weeks prior, we did not know existed.’
“While dating and getting to know each other, I had to share something huge with him. It was certainly too early to talk about children, but I knew if our relationship was going to progress, he needed to know.”
‘From the bathroom all he heard was, ‘BABE?!’ Just 2 weeks after meeting the birth mom, we found out we were pregnant. I was actually mad. ‘God why NOW?’
“I had a missed call. My husband then got a call. We looked at each other… ‘Answer it!’ ‘Louis, are you with Audrey?’ ‘Yes, she can hear you.’ The words she spoke stopped time for me. Everything she said next was hard to process. I was shocked.”
‘I was nineteen years old when I found out I was pregnant. I had four priceless days with her. 17 years later I thought to myself— could it be her, after all of this time?’
“In that short time, her adoptive father had pulled her aside and said, ‘Your birth mother is in that room. Would you like to meet her?”
‘I was in my parents’ bedroom- confessing a huge secret I had been keeping, one that would change our lives forever. I was pregnant. My dad decided I was going to have an abortion.’
“And when I dared to speak up, he looked at me and shouted, ‘You would really put this family and me through a crying baby? You are so selfish.”
‘IT’S A BOY!,’ they said as they held him up over the sheet. She turned and looked at me. ‘That’s your baby.’ It was the most incredible moment of my life.’
“The next day I walked into our apartment building to find Evan on his knees sobbing. The doctor had called.”
‘The day before we were supposed to fly out, we got a call. ‘We haven’t been able to reach her for 24 hours. This isn’t a good sign.’ My heart sank. We were completely shocked.’
“With tears running down my cheeks, I turned to my husband and told him the news. We were devastated. There were no red flags no warning signs. The next morning, we were called to the hospital. She was in labor – our baby girl was coming.”
‘We weren’t taking ANY more chances getting pregnant, so my husband got snipped. Then I got a text. ‘I FOUND YOUR BABY!’ I about died.’
“He had a rare disorder and a long list of conditions we didn’t think we were equipped to handle, especially already having a medically-needy child. Not to mention having 3 kids 5 and under! We were a NO, but something stirred in me.”
‘We finally got the call. This baby was due in 2 months, and she had a heart defect that would require open-heart surgery. The second I saw her little face, I fell to the ground.’
“I was nervous. I didn’t know if she would understand the baby I was holding is her sister. But when she came to the hospital, she pointed to my belly and said ‘no.’ Then she pointed to Josie and said ‘yes.’ So powerful.”
