Parents with newly adopted daughter get surprise baby shower on flight home

New parents, who’d just adopted their eight-day-old daughter, received the surprise of their life on their flight home.

They’d spent the last nine years trying to get pregnant or adopt a child, and finally, on Nov. 9, 2019, the California couple were able to take their adopted daughter, who was born in Colorado, home with them.

Dad Dustin Moore took to Twitter on Feb. 9 to share a remarkable story of human kindness they experienced on their Southwest Airlines flight.

He described the moment his brand new bundle of joy woke up mid-flight, demanding a diaper change. They were, he explained, kindly directed to a private area to do the changing in peace by a flight attendant named Jenny.

“After a change, Jenny and another passenger compliment my beautiful daughter and politely asked what had prompted a flight with such a young infant,” he wrote.

“I gave them the shortened adoption story, to which they hastily offered congratulations, and shared a few more kind remarks.”

Moore said another flight attendant, named Bobby, came up to their seats and showed interest in their baby about 10 minutes later.

“Then, we heard the intercom. The attendant Bobby came on and announced a special guest on the flight. Our daughter. ‘She’s just been adopted by her parents Caren and Dustin, and is making her way home.'”

“The entire cabin erupted in cheers and applause.”

Moore described the scene: people clapping and peeking over their chairs to get a glimpse of their precious baby girl.

The crew members handed out airline napkins so everyone could write special messages on them.

In the Twitter thread, Moore shared a photo of all the napkins, sweetly compiled into a photo album for safekeeping.

“Enjoy every minute,” one person wrote. “Always tell her you love her,” another passenger recommended.

The new father finished off his story with a call to action, asking people to “share what is good,” when social media is often used to complain about the bad things.

The Twitter thread has garnered more than 13,000 likes and nearly 3,000 retweets.

Moore told CBS that no photos would be shared of their daughter, as a condition of her adoption.

“We were insecure about people not thinking much of our daughter,” he told the publication. “It’s not very rational, but we were just concerned about what people would think by the virtue of her being adopted by us — we didn’t give birth to her.”

Clearly, the story of their growing family — and a simple act of kindness — touched the internet.

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meaghan.wray@globalnews.ca