Autumn Wright was just 15 when she discovered she was five months pregnant with a baby girl. At the time, the high school sophomore in Florida was living in a household marked by instability, addiction and financial strain.
“Initially I wanted to keep her,” Wright, now 31, tells TODAY.com. “I immediately loved this baby growing inside of me.”
Even at 15, however, Wright, understood the weight of her circumstances. She wanted a different path for her child, one that was solid and secure.
Wright and her boyfriend began looking into adoption agencies but quickly felt disheartened. None of the prospective parents felt right to either of them. Then her grandparents heard about a local couple hoping to start a family through adoption.
Soon after, an email arrived from a woman named Jourdan Hathaway. Did Wright want to meet them?
Wright wrote back, saying she was open to the idea, with one condition. “Although I am unable to raise this child, I still want to be a part of its life.”
A Match Meant to Be
Jourdan and Cam Hathaway, who live in Orlando, had endured five late-term pregnancy losses and were longing to become parents when they met Wright at an Applebee’s in 2009. Jourdan still laughs remembering how nervous she was that day — so nervous, in fact, that she showed up wearing two different shoes. Cam, for his part, was certain he was going to be sick. They had no reason to be.
“As soon as I saw Jourdan and Cam, I just knew,” Wright says, softly. “They could provide everything I never could.”
A few days later, the Hathaways received an email from Wright:
“We have decided that you and Cameron are who we want to raise our daughter. We would love for you to adopt her.”
The path to adoption was not entirely seamless. There were moments of doubt and hesitation. Wright stepped back from the adoption once, a decision Jourdan said she understood, given her own experience with stillbirths.
“What I told Autumn was, I know what it’s like to go to the hospital, deliver a baby girl, hold her in your arms, and then leave the hospital without her,” Jourdan, 45, says. “I knew that kind of pain. I knew that kind of anguish.”
Madeline Brooke Hathaway was born in March 2010. In the recovery room, Wright says she changed her mind “no less than 10 times.”
Moments after Wright and Maddie’s birth father, Jay, handed her over to the Hathaways in March 2010.Courtesy Jourdan Hathaway
“I was holding Maddie, and she was perfect,” Wright recalls. “I remember thinking, ‘She’s so easy. She’s so cute. I can do this. We can figure it out.’”
As she looked down at her daughter, Wright was reminded why she made this choice. She wanted stability for Maddie, and she had dreams for herself.
After hours of wavering between love and letting go, she placed her daughter in the Hathaways’ arms.
“I physically handed Maddie over,” Wright says, through tears.
What she didn’t yet realize was that she wasn’t losing a family. She was gaining one.
Blending Two Families
The months to come were hard. Wright’s relationship with her boyfriend ended, and the turmoil at home deepened, confirming what she already knew: the baby was exactly where she was meant to be.
“Whenever there was screaming or violence, I’d tell myself, ‘Thank God Maddie isn’t here,’” Wright says. “Even though it hurt, even though I was grieving, I knew I had made the right choice for her.”
In a joint conversation with TODAY.com, both Wright and Jourdan break into smiles when they talk about how the adoption contract included three visits a year. It seems almost unimaginable now. Fifteen years later, the two families are, as Jourdan puts it, “as blended as you can get.”
In 2017, Jourdan officiated Wright’s wedding, where Maddie was the flower girl and the Hathaways’ son, Keller, carried the rings. Years later, as Wright welcomed her son, Logan, now 4, Jourdan was by her side in the delivery room. They celebrate nearly all holidays together.
The Hathaway family with Autumn on her wedding day. Courtesy Jourdan Hathaway
Their closeness didn’t happen overnight. In the early days, visits were planned and polite, with everyone keeping their emotional guard up. Then, one afternoon, when Maddie was around 3, Jourdan found herself in a bind.
“I was in desperate need of a babysitter,” Jourdan says. “I called Autumn and told her, ‘This must be strange, but can you come over?’”
That was the turning point.
“It happened so organically, so naturally,” she says. “After that, it was, ‘Let’s all go to the fair, to the harvest festival, the preschool play, whatever the activity was, we all went together.”
Wright describes her relationship with Jourdan and Maddie as “best friends,” though she also sees Jourdan as a maternal figure, especially since her own mother died in 2019.
“Jourdan is like a mom to both of us in a lot of ways,” Wright says, glancing at Maddie, who nods in agreement.
At 15, Maddie is now the same age Wright was when she learned she was pregnant. Asked if she can imagine being in that situation, she shakes her head. “No,” she tells TODAY. “The thought of anything like that is completely wild to me.”
The three of them just booked a Caribbean cruise. And for Maddie’s 15th birthday, they flew to New York City to see “Mean Girls” on Broadway, dressed in matching pink.
Jourdan, Maddie and Autumn take frequent girls’ trips together. Next up: a cruise! Courtesy Jourdan Hathaway
Wright proudly notes that Jourdan and Cam have been there for every one of her graduations and milestone moments. She now has two boys, Logan, 4, and Hudson, 2, with her husband, Brandon, and Maddie considers them her brothers.
Jourdan admits she initially worried that Maddie might feel a stronger connection with Wright, a concern she says was only natural. Over time, however, the openness of the adoption deepened their bond. Maddie never had to wonder about her birth mother, romanticize her, or search for her.
“I’ve come to understand, on the deepest level, how important it is for a child to know where they come from,” Jourdan says. Over time, she realized that Maddie’s closeness with Wright didn’t threaten their bond. Instead, it strengthened it, easing the fears she once had.
A high school sophomore, Maddie is Wright’s spitting image. She inherited her birth father’s musical talent — she’s a gifted cello player — and she jokes that she got Wright’s sassiness. Her easy rapport with Wright is evident in the TikTok videos Wright shares.
“It’s really just a comfort that I always have someone to talk to, like Autumn,” Maddie says. “She’s closer to my age and understands things.” But there’s no question that Jourdan is the mom.
When Autumn Wright married in 2017, Jourdan Hathaway officiated the ceremony, and Maddie Hathaway served as the flower girl.Courtesy Jourdan Hathaway
“The first time I heard Maddie call Jourdan ‘Mom,’ it stung,’” Wright says. “Then I became a mom myself to the children I raise. Jourdan’s bond with Maddie is different than mine, and she earned it. It’s truly special. Maddie and I are best friends, and we are family, but I am not her mom.”
Over the years, the two families have learned to navigate the delicate balance of open adoption, weaving a life together defined by love, boundaries and mutual respect.
Jourdan grows emotional as she reflects on how far Wright has come since their first meeting.
“I’ve witnessed the most extraordinary growth of a human I could imagine,” she says. “When you think about a 15-year-old making the brave and courageous decision to move forward with adoption, the hope is that it allows them to become their fullest, best self.”
“Watching Autumn grow up, through her 20s, graduating college, landing her first job, getting married, and having children when she was truly ready, has been the privilege of a lifetime.”
