This mom made a heartbreaking video for her son before giving him up for adoption

January 17, 2018 7:46 PM

"He will always be able to know that I loved him more than anyone else in the world.”

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And she said as much in a tear-jerking video she made for her son Taggart shortly after his birth.

Hannah was 18 when she became pregnant with Taggart. She and the baby’s father Kaden, 20, had only been dating for a few months, so they decided that they would place Taggart up for open adoption, which would allow them to still be a part of his life. But Kaden died two days after the couple heard Taggart’s heartbeat on an ultrasound for the first time. “I was just so depressed. I was not going to think of adoption at all. The baby was my last part of Kaden,” Hannah told TODAY.

Hannah eventually decided to proceed with the adoption and settled on Emily and Brad Marsh, who already had a child from an open adoption. “They said they love the birth mom and they think she is the angel of the family,” Hannah said. “This stuck out.”

Hannah said the Marshes took her out on “dates” during her pregnancy and had her help set up the nursery. The Marshes were there for part of her labor but Hannah said she wanted 48 hours afterward for just her and Tagg. “I was his mom and it was the most incredible thing ever,” Hannah said. “As soon as I heard him cry, the clock started. I didn’t know how I was going to do this.”

After Tagg was born, Hannah asked the nurses to leave her alone with the baby and made the video. “I just allowed myself to break down,” she said. “I was just determined that Tagg was going to see this someday.”

In the video, which was shared on the Love What Matters Facebook page, Hannah tearfully gives Tagg a message. “This is for you, Tagg. I made this video so that you know how much I love you,” she said. “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!”

Hannah then talked about why she chose the Marshes. “I fell in love with them and they were beyond anything I could have asked for,” she said. “And I have really, really high standards for anyone who is going to raise my child.”

In the video’s caption, Hannah said that she decided to share it because she wanted people to know that adoption is often not easy for the birth parents. “This video was created so that he would be able to look back and know that this decision was purely out of love for him,” Hannah wrote. “He will never have to think that I ‘gave him up’ or that I did not love him. He will always be able to know that I loved him more than anyone else in the world.”

Hannah lives near the Marshes and sees Tagg weekly—and she hopes their story will help others decide on open adoption.

“We had this mutual understanding,” Hannah said of herself and Emily. “Each of us is Tagg’s mother and we are both confident in our roles. She is the mom who raises him. I am his tummy mommy. And he is always going to know I gave him life and gave him to his family.”