God Answers Firefighter's Prayer for Another Child Through Miracle Adoption
Five years ago Marc Hadden and his wife Rebecca were praying for a third child. One day he got a routine emergency call from a woman in labor.
He never thought the child he would deliver would become his very own.
"I will never forget that day. It was a day when a lot of things came full circle," firefighter Marc Hadden told CNN.
The call was about a woman who was experiencing severe abdominal pain. When Hadden and other responders got to the scene they realized the woman was in labor and she gave birth in the back of the ambulance.
"It was a pretty serious call for us," he told Today. "We got her on some oxygen, started some IVs, and literally as we were getting ready to leave the parking lot in the ambulance my partner said, 'We're about to deliver a baby right here.' We had no time to prepare. Before we could do anything — we hadn't even cut her clothes — Gracie came right out. Immediately she was handed to me."
It wasn't long before Hadden found out the child's mother was homeless and planned on giving up her baby for adoption.
When Hadden told his wife about the newborn he helped deliver, her response was: "Can we keep her?"
The couple took baby Grace home from the hospital just two days after she was born. Months later they were granted full custody. They call it a dream come true.
"We had prayed about it for so long," the firefighter said. "We wanted to adopt because we were unable to have more kids. We always dreamed of adopting a little girl."
"To see my wife's face light up when we brought Gracie home. I can't even begin to tell you. ..." Hadden told CNN.
Gracie is now 5 years old and is a budding gymnast and soccer player.
"She's a special person," he said. "We know it and she knows it."
Hadden was named Firefighter of the Year in 2011 when Grace was born. Now, he is retired and gets to spend his days doing his favorite job -- just being a dad.
"Every day I look forward to waking her up, getting her ready for school, then picking her up later on," said Hadden. "I am living the best days of my life. She contributed to all of our lives."
