Eighteen years ago a baby was abandoned on a hospital doorstep. INSIDE EDITION caught up with the nurse who said ‘Yes’ to becoming her mom and the young lady who’s happy she did.
Original Airdate: 7/30/14
Sara Gibbs will never forget the moment 18 years ago when a baby was left abandoned outside the hospital where she worked.
She told INSIDE EDITION, “When I first saw her it was a complete shock to me that anybody would leave a newborn. And she was new because she still had a little blood in her hair.”
Sara was a nurse at Magnolia Regional Health Center in Corinth, Mississippi. She was forced to make a tough decision.
“The nursing supervisor talked me into it she said, ‘Sara you need to take this baby’ and my first questions was ‘What am I going to do with a baby? I work night shift, I work 12 hour nights, I don’t have a husband,” she said.
But Sara's maternal instinct kicked in. Two-and-a-half hours after being abandoned, the baby had a new home and a new mom—Sara.
Now, 18 years later, baby Janessa has grown up.
Janessa said, "My mother means the world to me."
Sara said, “I’m just glad that I had the means and the resources to afford the opportunities for her to take dance, to do gymnastics. I’m proud to have done those things for her.”
Janessa may have had a rough start, but she is remarkably well adjusted. She starts college in the fall. There are days when she does wonder about her biological mother and why she would leave her on that doorstep.
She told INSIDE EDITION, “When I think of my birthmother it makes me feel sad sometimes. I don't think she dropped me off because she didn't want me, but maybe because she couldn't take care of me.”
Janessa is forever thankful she landed in the loving embrace of Sara who gave her a mother's love, saying, “I think she made a good decision because she needed me and I needed her.”
