A young mother has shared a heartbreaking video of the final moments she spent with her newborn son before she gave him up for adoption.
Hannah Mongie, 21, from Utah was 18 when she fell pregnant unexpectedly with her boyfriend of eight weeks, Kaden Whitney.
But she was ‘shattered’ when Kaden, a church missionary, passed away in his sleep from natural causes two months later.
The pair had already discussed adoption but after Kaden’s death, Hannah initially struggled with the idea of going ahead with the adoption.
‘I couldn’t think,’ she explained, ‘From the day your Daddy died I had a hard time even considering placing you with a different family when you were my last piece of Kaden.
‘But one day I woke up and just knew you were supposed to be with someone else.’
Hannah decided to follow through with it after finding Brad and Emily Marsh on an adoption website and falling in love with them.
After giving birth, she had a precious 48 hours with her son Taggart before she handed him over to his new parents, Brad and Emily Marsh, during which she made a video for her son.
Adoptive parent Emily Marsh with birth mother Hannah Mongie as she meets baby Taggart for the first time in March 2016
Birth mother Hannah Mongie with her baby Taggart in March 2016, before handing him to his adoptive mother
In the video, Hannah told Tagg through tears: ‘I made this video, so you know how much I love you. I wanted to tell you why I made the decision to place you with your family.’
Hannah met his father Kaden when the pair became pen pals during his Church of Latter-Day Saints mission trip.
After writing to each other for four months, they met up for the first time and became a couple.
Just two months after they started dating Hannah found out she was pregnant and they discussed their options.
Birth mother Hannah Mongie with her baby Taggart in March 2016
Birth mother Hannah Mongie with her baby Taggart and his adoptive parent Emily Marsh in March 2016
‘It was way too early in the relationship to do anything marriage-wise,’ she said.
However, the idea of giving away the baby she already loved and never seeing them again was too much for Hannah to bear.
So they settled on the idea of an open adoption where they could still be part of his life.
‘We both felt this enormous peace,’ she said. ‘This is what we needed to do.’
She decided to make a video for Tagg so that he could look at it when he’s older and understand why she gave him up for adoption.
Birth mother Hannah Mongie with her baby Taggart (centre) . Hannah is still very much a part of Taggart’s life thanks to an open adoption agreement with his parents Brad (with son Carter, three) and Emily Marsh (right)
‘I wanted to tell you why I made the decision to place you with your family,’ she told him. ‘Gosh you’re so cute, you’re making this hard.
Explaining how her late boyfriend had been so excited about the pregnancy, she told him: He loved you so much from the very, very beginning.
‘At my eight week appointment with you I heard your heartbeat for the first time. Daddy wasn’t there for it. He was in class so I texted him. He ran out and he was so excited to hear it. From then on he couldn’t be happier.
‘He was hoping for a boy, so he could teach him baseball and sports. I thought you were going to be a girl though. He said he was going to have a son. Then two days after he heard your heartbeat, his heart stopped.’
Birth mother Hannah Mongie with her baby Taggart. Hannah is still very much a part of Taggart’s life thanks to an open adoption agreement with his parents Brad and Emily Marsh.
After Kaden’s death, Hannah found Brad and Emily through an adoption website.
‘I fell in love with them and they were beyond anything I could have asked for and I have really, really high standards for anyone who is going to raise my child.
‘I met them and fell in love with them. And after two weeks I told them I wanted them to adopt you .
‘Emily is one of my best friends now and we’ve been getting really, really excited together for you to be in her home.’
Hannah wanted to make sure her son grew up with a mother and a father after her boyfriend passed away
Before Tagg was born, Hannah helped Emily prepare the nursery and became close friends with her. She now plays an active part in his life
Hannah and the couple agreed she would spent 48 hours with her son before handing over him so she had a brief chance to be his mother.
‘Right now I’m in the last hour before I send you off to Brad and Emily and then you’re going to be their little boy,’ she said. I just want you to know I really, really love you so much, more than I’ve ever loved any human in the whole world.
‘I made this decision purely out of love because I knew I couldn’t give you what you needed, which is a mommy and a daddy.’
She is still very much a part of Taggart’s life thanks to an open adoption agreement with his parents Brad and Emily Marsh.