But he was just going to the next call.
It was nearing lunchtime when a call came in at the fire station in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A woman called who complained of severe abdominal pain. Here it is necessary to clarify at once, in the States firefighters go not only to fires, but also on every call to the 911 rescue service. Therefore, firefighter Mark Hadden did not hang up the phone with the words “You got to the wrong place”, but together with the team immediately rushed to the challenge.
Already on the spot, it became clear: severe abdominal pains turned out to be contractions – the woman was giving birth.
“I confess that we do not visit pregnant women every day. So for us it was a pretty serious challenge, ” Hadden tells the portal. … – We put an oxygen mask on the woman, put on a drip, but when we were already parked at the ambulance station, my partner said: “It’s too late, the baby will be born now.”
Everything went quickly, and as soon as the baby was born, he was handed over to Mark. It was a girl. But then, holding the baby in his arms, Hadden did not think that this baby would change his life.
The girl’s mother, Mark thought, was most likely homeless. And a few hours later, the firefighter learned that the woman was planning to leave the child.
For Hadden and his wife Beth, it was like a sign from above. The couple had long wanted a third child, but everything did not work out, and the couple were already thinking about adoption. Therefore, Beth and Mark, without a moment’s hesitation, decided that this girl should become a part of their family.
Two days later, they took the baby home, and while they were filling out all the necessary documents, the girl was with them. Three months later, little Grace officially became Grace Hadden.
Now the girl is already 5 years old. She does gymnastics, goes to the kindergarten at the school where her mother works. Grace’s older brothers – 12-year-old Parker and 14-year-old Will – do not like their little sister.
The parents did not hide the story of her birth from the girl.
“And if you ask my daughter how she was born, Grace will say, ‘My dad helped me get born in an ambulance,’” says Mark. “I told her everything at once, as soon as she was old enough to understand.”
Of course, later the father will have to explain in more detail to Grace the story of her adoption, for sure questions about the biological mother will arise. But already now Mark is glad that all this will not be a big surprise for the girl.
“Grace is where she needs to be right now,” Hadden says. – She is part of our family. And we love her madly. “