Credit: Derrick Salters/WENN.com
First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage, right? That’s what Hill Harper thought for most of his life as well, which is why the single actor had yet to become a dad. But when a friend encouraged Harper to look into single parent adoption and a stroke of fate landed him in the path of a mother who was looking for adoptive parents, Harper found himself becoming a single father at 51.
“I always thought I was going to get married, have my own kids and I was going to adopt,” Harper told Good Morning America today. “I had talked about adopting and I had talked about wanting to be this dad, and she said, ‘You’re going to be a great dad but I think you’re waiting too long. You may get to a point where you’ll decide you’re not going to do it. Even though you’re not married, why can’t you just be a dad now?’”
Although Harper took his friend’s advice and spoke with an adoption person she knew in the summer of 2015, he said by the end of learning the process he told the guy, “I’m just not ready. I’m not there.”
The universe seemed to have other plans, however.
“[F]ast-forward to right before Thanksgiving of that year, I get a call from him,” Harper explained. “I was shooting a show called ‘Limitless’ at the time. I was in my dressing room and I didn’t know why he was calling me. He says, ‘There’s a wonderful young woman who is having a son in three weeks. Would you be interested in adopting him?’”
Although Harper was initially caught off guard, once he talked to the birth mother, his decision was solidified.
“I really felt like it was God telling me to do it,” he told People magazine. “And I’m so glad that he chose me, and [Pierce’s mom] and God and the universe chose me.”
Pierce, his son, was born in December 2015 and Harper was right there in the delivery room and even cut the umbilical cord.
“I was so scared. I think because it was such a huge decision. But looking back now, all the fears I had were ridiculously small compared to the joy of having him in my life and having the opportunity to be a father…[Adopting Pierce] was the greatest decision I’ve ever made and I’ve never been happier.”
Pierce is now 18 months old and slowly making his debut on the actor’s Instagram, proving his dad’s point that he loves music as you can see in the video below.
“I never felt I could love this deeply,” Harper said. “I love him and he’s my son.”
The post Hill Harper Adopted A Son: “I Really Felt Like It Was God Telling Me To Do It” appeared first on MadameNoire.