You can be going about your normal day when suddenly a situation changes your life forever. One man named Marc Hadden knows all about this.
Marc Hadden is a firefighter in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He is also a father to two boys and a husband to Beth Hadden. Marc and Beth wanted to have more than two children but were told her previous pregnancies had proven too risky to have any more biological children.
“My wife was basically told to wrap it up, you know, that any further pregnancies could cause more complications for her and for, you know, the potential baby,” Marc told Inside Edition.
Marc and Beth looked into adoption, but quickly felt like their firefighter and teacher salaries made adoption near impossible.
Marc and Beth put their future in God’s hands and kept going about their day-to-day lives with their two beautiful boys. That is until Marc responded to a call during work. He believed it was going to be a normal call but it was the call that changed his life and his family’s life forever.
Marc responded to an ambulance call that had a woman feeling abdominal pain.
Once he arrived at the scene it was clear she was pregnant and going into labor. The woman was not going to make it to the hospital and Marc, for the first time, took the lead delivering a baby. The baby turned out to be a beautiful little girl.
“I was tasked with everything to do with Gracie… I helped her take her first breath,” Marc told CBS News.
Marc and his partner brought the woman and newborn baby straight to the hospital. Marc overheard a nurse mention that the baby needed to be put up for “immediate adoption” according to the mom. How did Marc reply to this news?
By jokingly saying, “Throw my name in the hat if this baby’s being put up for adoption.”
The nurses told Marc to seriously talk with the mother if he and his wife were really serious about adopting. So, Marc did. Marc told the new mom about his family and how they wanted more children but could not have any more of their own. Then he went to the nursery to snap up photos of the newborn baby girl.
Marc sent the pictures to his wife who joked about wanting to keep her. Luckily, it would not turn out to be a joke for long.
It would only be a few days after when Marc and Beth would be able to bring their newly adopted baby daughter home.
Rebecca Grace Hadden, known as Gracie.
After a whirlwind of a few days it was not surprising that the Hadden family would be completely unprepared for a newborn baby. That is when their community stepped in. Friends, family and coworkers showed up with all the baby supplies the Hadden’s would need and a bit extra.
Marc joked he could not even open his front door all the way because of the overflowing baby supplies from their community!
Gracie was five years old when Marc was interviewed by Inside Edition. How was Gracie and her hero daddy doing?
“Gracie has me wrapped around her finger. There’s no doubt about it,” Marc admitted.
The Hadden’s lives were all changed in the most beautiful way because of that one emergency call.