Teen Mom stars Tyler and Catelynn Baltierra faced a heartwrenching decision when they placed their firstborn daughter, Carly, for adoption.
While still teenagers, the couple placed Carly with her adoptive parents, Brandon and Teresa Davis, and have been dealing with the impact of their decision for the past 14 years.
It was an emotional and tough decision for Tyler and Catelynn, and now that they’ve welcomed three more daughters since Carly’s birth – Novalee Reign, 8, Vaeda Luma, 4, and Rya Rose, 1 – Carly’s adoption has raised new questions, especially from their 8-year-old daughter, Novalee (Nova).
Nova is at the age where she’s beginning to question her parents’ decision to place her older sister for adoption, and Catelynn and Tyler are prepared to explain it to her the best they can.
During a recent interview with E! News, the couple revealed that they plan to watch Carly’s adoption episode on 16 and Pregnant with Nova.
“We probably will show her our original 16 and Pregnant just to give her a lot more context to why we do what we did,” Tyler told E! News. “She would get it. She’s pretty wise for her age.”
Catelynn chimed in, adding that she and Tyler will “need a day just to ourselves with no other kids” because they’ll be a “hot mess the whole time watching it” with Nova.
Teen Mom star Catelynn Baltierra is concerned about the effect of Carly’s adoption on daughters Nova, Vaeda, and Rya
Admittedly, Catelynn still gets emotional about Carly’s adoption, but she’s more concerned about the effect it will have on Carly’s sisters, Nova, Vaeda, and Rya.
During their visit with Carly this summer, Catelynn shared that Nova continually questioned why Carly couldn’t come and stay with them or why she couldn’t spend the night at Carly’s house.
Kids are “a lot smarter than people really give them credit for,” Tyler added, pointing out that explaining otherwise adult-level situations to them goes over pretty easily.
“And if you explain things to them from a really basic standpoint, they go, ‘Oh, okay, cool,’ and they just run off,” Tyler added. “And then, like, 10 minutes later, they’re playing with Barbies.”
Tyler also admitted that as teenagers, he and Catelynn didn’t think about their future children and how they might be impacted by their decision to place Carly for adoption.
The MTV star says that he and his wife of eight years take things as they come, going with the flow and answering whatever questions Nova, Vaeda, or Rya may have as they come.
Carly’s sisters’ love’ spending time with her during visits
For now, Catelynn and Tyler are thankful for the time they get to spend with Carly and enjoy watching her interact with her younger sisters.
Catelynn said of spending time with all four of her and Tyler’s daughters together, “It’s pretty awesome to be able to witness it.”
“And we’re blessed that we do have an open adoption to be able to witness it,” the reality TV star confessed. “It’s truly a blessing to be able to watch all of these things over the years.”
Season 2 of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter airs on Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.