Open adoption is often confusing for anyone who is not part of the adoption community. Many may not understand what open adoption involves, what it can be, and what a positive impact it can have on everyone involved. No one knows this better than the Marsh family and Hannah Mongie.
Hannah became pregnant at 18 years of age. A few months later, her boyfriend had died. After much discussion and thought of what would be best for her baby, she decided that it would be adoption. Hannah stated in an ABC news article that one day, she woke up and had a sense of peace about pursuing adoption.
Hannah’s next step was to select a family. She review many family’s profiles on Adoption.com Parent Profiles and found a good match with Brad and Emily Marsh. The Marsh family already had one son, whom they had adopted. Hannah especially liked that Brad and Emily had a very high value of birth mothers and open adoption.
Hannah gave birth to Taggart (Tag) and he joined the Marsh family in March 2016, according to a Today article. After his birth, Hannah made a video for Tag, sharing how much she loves him and how the decision for his adoption was made out of love. Her video has been viewed and shared over 600,000 times. Hannah discussed how many birth mothers write letters, but she wanted to do a video to capture the depth of the emotion and love she has for him.
Since then, Hannah is basically just an extension of the Marsh family. She sees Tag on a regular basis and even babysits him, when needed, for Brad and Emily. Hannah and Emily, who have become like sisters, even go together to local schools to share their story and educate about adoption and open adoption.
The Marsh family now has three boys through the joy of adoption. All three boys have pictures of their birth mothers in their bedrooms. Emily stated, “Our sons can always know they’ve been placed out of love and we love their birth families. I hope people have more hope and perspective on the positive experience adoption can be.”
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