Pregnant Woman Gives Baby To NC Woman She Met On a Plane

RALEIGH, NC — A little more than 18 months ago, a flight from Atlanta to Raleigh turned pivotal for a 24-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant and unsure about her baby’s future. Samantha Snipes had already missed one flight and had snagged the last seat on the Delta flight bound to the North Carolina capital. Heavily pregnant, she was also carrying the weight of leaving what she described as an “unhealthy relationship” with her soon-to-be-born baby’s father.

She sat in a seat next to Clayton, North Carolina resident Temple Phipps, and the two women started talking. During the course of the flight that typically lasts less than 90 minutes, Snipes revealed she was considering giving her baby to a family member to raise, or possibly putting him up for adoption.

“Through the course of the discussion, she shared that she was concerned about [what] she was going to do,” Phipps, 42, recalled to a local news station. Childless, Phipps spontaneously suggested that she could adopt the baby. “I thought, she could always say no, but she didn’t have a plan and maybe this was divine and that’s why I’m supposed to be here,” on the plane, she said.

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By the time the flight landed, Phipps gave the young woman her phone number and told her to call her if she needed anything while she was in Raleigh.

Snipes did just that only three days later, after going into labor and delivering her baby three weeks early while she was in Raleigh. Recalling that moment when she picked up the phone she said she was nervous and scared, she told WRAL.

Phipps vividly remembered the conversation: “She said, “It’s Samantha from the plane. I said, ‘Is everything OK?’ and she said, ‘I’m still in Raleigh. I had the baby. Do you want to come see us?’”

Phipps did just that, but Snipes had another surprise for her. “I think you should be his mother,” she told the North Carolina woman.

Phipps, who is in her 40s and who was single after being married once before, said she had always wanted children but had been cautious about how and with whom to start a family. "For a variety of reasons, it just never happened for me,” Phipps said.

Within a week, however, Phipps was mother to son Vaughn Preston, who she officially adopted in August 2017. The family unit wasn’t finished forming, however. Snipes decided to move to North Carolina to be close to Phipps and baby Vaughn, and lives about an hour away.

“We’re a chosen family for sure,” Phipps said.

You can watch the WRAL report here.

Photo via Shutterstock