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SALT LAKE CITY — Get the box of Kleenex ready.
A Utah mother’s message to her newborn son recorded just hours before he is turned over to his adoptive parents is gaining national attention.
“This is for you Tagg. I made this video so that you know how much I love you,” Hannah Mongie tearfully tells her son, Taggart.
In the tear-jerking video, the Provo native explains to her newborn why she decided to place him for adoption.
Mongie explains she met Taggart’s father, Kaden, in 2013 when the two wrote letters to each other while he served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
When Taggart’s father returned from his mission in April 2015, he and Mongie began dating for a while before they learned she was pregnant, Mongie says.
Several weeks later, Mongie heard Taggart’s heartbeat for the first time at a sonogram appointment. She had recorded the heartbeat and sent it to Taggart’s father who was in class at the time.
Two days later, Kaden’s heart stopped. He died of natural causes.
“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,” Mongie tells Taggart in the video.
Mongie eventually found Brad and Emily Marsh through an adoption website.
“They were beyond anything I could have asked for and I have really, really high standards for anyone who’s going to raise my child,” Mongie says.
Mongie goes on to say throughout the adoption process Emily Marsh became one of her best friends.
“We’ve been getting really, really excited together for you to be in her home, and I helped her put the nursery together for you,” she continues.
In the video’s most difficult part for Mongie, she tells Taggart she made the decision to place him with another family purely out of love — so that he could have “a mommy and a daddy.”
Although published on YouTube in January of 2017, the video has just recently gained a lot of attention. As of Wednesday night, the video had more than 1 million views on YouTube and had been viewed 3.7 million times on a Facebook page titled Love What Matters. Mongie shared the following message on the page:
"I hope anyone who watches this will be able to gain a new perspective on what the Birth Mom goes through, when she places her child for adoption. It is the FURTHEST thing from a heartless act. It shows the definition of love. To love someone this much, is to give away your happiness for them."
Mongie even appeared on Megyn Kelly TODAY with the Marshes to talk about the adoption and the viral video.
Luckily for Taggart, now almost 2 years old, the adoption is open and he still sees his birth mother often. Mongie shares photos of Taggart and their time together on her Instagram account.
Mongie ends the touching video by reminding her son that he will always be loved.
“I love you, Taggart Kaden Marsh. My little boy, my son. I love you so much. Love your mommy, Hannah.”
