(WSVN) - A chance meeting on a plane forever changed the lives of two women. One was considering putting her baby up for adoption, while the other one was looking to adopt a child.
Samantha Snipes and Temple Phipps were strangers when they boarded the Delta flight from Atlanta to Raleigh, but the two immediately clicked during the short trip.
Phipps sensed Snipes was nervous on the flight, and asked her why. The 24-year-old revealed that she had just left an abusive relationship. She was eight months pregnant, and considering adoption since she didn’t have the means to support a baby.
“Nervous as I was about the flight, I found comfort in getting to know her. We only had an hour together, but I felt as if we had been friends for years,” Snipes told Fox News.
It turned out Phipps had been trying to adopt a child, but was having difficulty because she was a single woman.
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The two exchanged numbers, and Phipps told Snipes to call her if she found herself in trouble or ever needed anything.
Just three days later, Snipes went into labor early. And although her 6-pound baby boy was healthy, she said she “still didn’t feel like a mother to the point that I should.”
So Snipes called Phipps, asking her to come visit her in the hospital.
She offered to let her new friend feed the baby, and as she watched Phipps rock the infant, Snipes said she saw a “light at the end of the tunnel.”
“She already looked like she loved him after holding him for an hour. The stuff that I wasn’t feeling, she was feeling. And I was watching that and that’s what made me decide this is the right thing to do,” Snipes said.
She asked Phipps if she would like to adopt her baby, named Vaughn.
“She was in disbelief that I even asked her, a stranger,” Snipes said. “But a stranger that felt more like family to me than anyone.”
Phipps tearfully agreed.
“I count my blessings every day. And I look at him and think I still can’t believe this happened to me,” Phipps said.
Now nearly two years later, the women live just an hour apart and visit each other often. They say they talk daily.
Snipes said she decided to share her story to give hope to other women who may be struggling.
“I want everyone to know that even though the walls may feel as if they are closing in on you, if you just trust your heart and have faith, it will get better,” she said.
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