Adoption isn't always an easy subject to tackle. In addition to the overwhelming amount of love and graciousness involved, there can also be plenty of sadness and tons of misconceptions about what it means to "give a child up" for adoption. Hoping to dispel some of these misconceptions while also ensuring that her son never grows up wondering about them, one Utah mom shared a video she made for her baby boy before she put him up for adoption.
Hannah Mongie was forced to make some pretty tough decisions at 18 years old.
Only shortly after she found out she was pregnant, her boyfriend tragically passed away. It wasn't long before she made the incredibly difficult decision to put her baby son up for adoption.
Mongie gave birth in March 2016 and was able to spend two days alone with her son, Taggart, before he went with his adoptive parents. Shortly before the adoption was official, Mongie decided to record a special message for her little boy, hoping to help him understand the choices she'd had to make.
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In the emotional video, Mongie express her love for Tagg while explaining the choice she made.
"I made this video so that you know how much I love you," she can be heard saying. "I wanted to tell you why I made the decision to place you with your family — gosh, you're so cute, you're making this hard!"
Between tears, Mongie tells Tagg how difficult it was for her to let him go.
"I made this decision purely out of love because I knew I couldn't give you what I knew you needed which is a mommy and a daddy," she says. "And I hope your daddy is watching over us right now. I bet he's with me right now. 'Cause this is the hardest part and he wouldn't leave me alone during this."
She also explains how grateful she is for Tagg's adoptive parents.
"And I fell in love with them and they were beyond anything I could have asked for," she says of Brad and Emily Marsh. "And I have really, really high standards for anyone who is going to raise my child so I met them and I fell in love with them and within about two weeks I told them I wanted them to adopt you."
Mongie told local KTVU that she doesn't view Tagg's adoption as her "giving away" her baby.
"Rather than 'giving him up' or 'away,' I just adopted his entire family into mine. Including his extended family. We just grew, and everyone loves each other as if we've always been family," she said to KTVU.
Tagg's adoptive mom, Emily Marsh, told KTVU that she wants her son to be able to maintain a relationship with his birth mother. "Having our boys' birth mothers so involved in their lives means they will never have to wonder if their birth moms loved them, they will never have to feel abandoned," Marsh said. "They will always know their birth mothers placed them out of selfless love and sacrifice — wanting to give their babies more than they felt they could offer at that time in their lives."
Mongie has an open adoption, which means that she is allowed to maintain contact with Tagg and his family.
She says that she is able to see him a couple times a month and cherishes every moment she gets with him. Her Instagram account is full of beautiful photos of the duo together, all of which include Mongie expressing nothing but love and joy for her boy as well as confidence that she made the right decision.
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Although it may be some time before little Taggart is able to fully appreciate this video his birth mother made for him, we have no doubt that he's able to fully appreciate her love in the meantime.
