Browsing Tag: American Idol

– I wanna introduce you to
a family that went viral for a photoshoot celebrating
their youngest son’s adoption. What struck a chord with a lot of people was how multicultural the family is. Here to tell us about it is
the Jones-Baldwin family. Y’all, give it up for ’em! (audience cheering) Alright, well, welcome to the show! – [Keia] Thank you! – So, tell us, who is everyone here? – Okay, well, this gentleman beside me, this is my husband, Rick. Then, he’s holding our
two-year-old son, Princeton. We just recently adopted him. – Hey Princeton! – [Keia] And then we have Ayden. – [Kelly] Hey Ayden, you are so cute. – [Keia] He’s been with us for five years. He’s eight. And then we have the teenagers on the end, they’re 16, both of ’em. – [Kelly] Good luck! – [Keia] I know! (laughing) We have Zariyah, she’s
my biological daughter from a previous relationship,
and then we have Karleigh, and she’s been with us for awhile. (audience applauding) – Awesome! And just in
case everyone missed, this is Keia, obviously. Yeah, I was gonna say, I
don’t know if I said Keia in the beginning. – Yes, this is me. – So did y’all have some tacos backstage? – [Keia] We did. – Oh my gosh, I had the steak ones! – They were so good! – They were so good!
It melted in my mouth! (Keia laughing) I was like, this is not on the plan, Keia. – It’s not, not on my plan. – It’s not, but I do,
I love the photoshoot. Who’s idea was it to do it? You can walk around, Princeton. This is your show. (Keia chuckling) You wanna sit with me? You can come sit with me! (audience awing) – I have a three year
old, so I’m used to them feeling my mama energy! – [Keia] I know, right? – I have a three year old. (audience clapping) So who’s idea was it to do it? – It was our idea, it was my idea. – Yeah, it was my wife’s idea. We were pretty, everybody
was pretty excited about, you know, the adoption, and we wanted to do something special. She came up with the idea, we pretty much went over
the things that we wanted to go on our shirts. She reached out to one of my friends, and he made the shirts for us. – Oh, that’s so cool! Man, I love you guys. Princeton wasn’t your first
child to adopt, right? Was it Ayden, or was it, did you end up getting Karleigh first? – Karleigh came first, yes. – [Kelly] Okay. – But no, we didn’t think
about adoption initially because just having Zariyah
as a biological daughter and we couldn’t have
children the traditional way, I didn’t want to make it seem, you know, for it to be unfair, because I didn’t know
if I was gonna love them the way that I love Zariyah, and I just could not have that. And then when Karleigh came– – It’s really important that
you have that discussion with yourself before you do it, too. – You just never know,
and I didn’t want to, you know, have them feeling
any type of way in our house. And so Karleigh came in– – [Kelly] So how did Karleigh, yeah? – She changed everything,
my heart was like, oh my gosh, I do love,
I can love! Ya know? – That’s so awesome! Karleigh, you did that! – I did that! (audience applauding) – So, Zariyah, y’all were friends, right? – [Zariyah] Yeah. – Were y’all friends first,
and that’s how that happened? – Yeah, we were bestfriends. – [Kelly] Bestfriends, I love it! Now y’all are sisters! – Right. (laughing) – Well, how do you feel
when you’re adopted into the family? – Well, I was very, I felt
very loved, and stable where I was at. It was nice to know I had a family behind me that
was able to support me every step of my way.
As we said, me and Zary were bestfriends, and now we’re sisters, and couldn’t ask for
anything better than that. – [Kelly] So cool! (audience applauding) So Mike, you originally worked
with foster kids, right? – Yeah, I was just discussing
with them for a minute that I did work in a group
home for about a year and I learned so much from the experience and I felt like I didn’t
have as many tools because I was young and I came out of college, I had a graduates degree but not in this area of childcare or
anything of that nature. But what she told me which stuck with me was that, you know, really,
you just need someone that is love and cares about
the kids at the end of the day and that’s such an
important thing, ya know — – It really is! – Is to really care– – Man, that’s amazing! – Yeah– – Okay so– (audience laughing) – I love it! You keep running! You’re not gonna wanna do
that when you’re older, just keep doing it now! (audience laughing) – You originally didn’t
know Princeton was white? – [Keia] No – [Kelly] They don’t tell you that. – They don’t – Which I actually love.
‘Cause it doesn’t matter. – [Keia} Right. Yeah. – Because love is love. It doesn’t matter if it’s a gay couple. If
it’s a black or white couple an Indian couple. It doesn’t matter. (audience cheering) – [Keia] Yeah, no– – [Kelly] You just wanna be loved! – Yes, that’s right! And that was the only
qualification that we had. Just love. So, we didn’t
say, you know, send us any specific age, gender,
you know, or whatever, so, love. – I love it. Did it kinda
for your family, was that kind of a shock, though,
because you were like oh! – (imitating explosion) (laughing) – [Kelly] (laughing) Was it like, oh, well that’s different, but okay! – Yeah, it was! – [Kelly] Yeah, I imagine! – Did you unwrap, like
it came in a package, and you open it up and it was like– – It was like, oh! – Oh! – Turn it around, and surprise! – Oh my gosh, good luck, because you got a lot of energy! Don’t you fall! – Yeah, don’t fall off
that stage! (chuckling) – I like my money,
don’t sue me, Princeton! I worked hard for this! – Alright, well we’ll
find out how Keia and Rick made that discovery after the break, we’ll be right back y’all. (audience cheering) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (clapping) – Alright, y’all, welcome back, I’m here with Mike Colter, who is famous for playing a super hero! (audience cheering) And I have a family of
real-life super heroes, the Jonas-Baldwin family! (audience cheering) – Three of their four children are adopted and they recently went viral for their photoshoot, celebrating the adoption of their youngest,
two-year-old, Princeton. So, we mentioned, you
didn’t know Princeton was was white. How did you find that out? – They called me to do
skin-to-skin with him. Which is like, you know,
you go to the hospital, and you put them on your chest, I know! And you bond with them, you know, so he was in the NICU– – And for people that don’t have babies, it’s a really important thing for babies, especially babies that
don’t have moms around, so that’s why they ask people, because that skin-to-skin, is like really developmental– – [Keia] Right, yes. – For them, in the early stages. – So I get there, and I’m excited, and my husband’s like,
“Don’t go to that hospital, ’cause I know you gonna
bring the baby home.” And I was like.. (Kelly and audience laughing) (Princeton cooing) – And I was like, “no I’m not!” – Yeah. – And so I get there, and I’m like ew, you know, there’s a
lot of babies in there, and I’m like, the black and brown babies, like, “which one am I
putting on my chest?” And she was like, “no,
that one over there.” And I was like, “the white baby?” (audience laughing) You know, and I was like, “okay, well, give him here!” And I just put him on my chest! (Princeton shouting) (everyone laughing) (audience cheering) – He was like, “ahhhhh!” – [Keia] Growlin’! And I put him up here, and it was just like, I
fell in love with him. And I was like, my husband
was right, I shouldn’t’ve came, because I’m
bringin’ him home, sorry. – Awe, you fell in love with him! – Yes, I did! – That’s hard to do! I
can’t, I don’t know how people do that skin-to-skin
and leave without them. – I know! Leave them up there! – Yeah. – I was up there every day! – Yeah. My husband is backstage right now, going, she is not allowed to ever do that. (audience laughing) She’s going to bring home all these kids. – Skin-to-skin equals adoption. Skin-to-skin, adoption. Skin-to-skin, adoption. – [Kelly] Straight there, straight there. So what’s it been like, Ayden, having a little baby brother? – It’s been great, he’s
smart, he’s intelligent, he’s very cute, and he gives
very great, grateful hugs. (Mike and audiences awing) – I love you! You are gonna be a little lady killer! Look it, he’s just so cute, oh my God! Okay, so you’ve had mixed
reactions from people about Princeton, right? – Yes. – How is that? How do you deal with that? – Well, you know, we get lots of stares. It’s rare, you know,
where we’re from, to see African American families
with Caucasian babies. – [Kelly] (giggling) He’s gone again. – So, we get a lot of
stares. I’ve had, you know, the police called on
me. Where I’ve had to– – What?! – Yes, where I’ve had
to show documentation that he’s my son, and– – Do you get mad at that?
I would get mad at that. – You know, we’ve tried
to just kinda push it to the side and just
choose to love regardless. – It’s almost like you’d
rather somebody just say something, like instead of, like, don’t stare at me, I
get that might be weird, but just say something– – Yeah, yeah, it’s just easier to say– – I didn’t steal this kid. – I know, I know! – There goes Ayden! Going after, y’all are going to be performers. It’s your stage, y’all, it’s your stage! – And I’m not the babysitter, ’cause I get that a lot, too. – [Kelly] Oh gosh, oh my gosh! – [Keia] Yeah, yeah. – [Kelly] People are rude! That’s like coming up to
ask if someone’s pregnant. Don’t do it! – [Mike] No, no. – Don’t do it! – [Mike] In all fairness,
so my wife is white, and so we have biracial kids
and she gets the same thing. And we have a white wife, and my kids, you know, they look, they’re black, so sometimes at the
airport and they are like questioning the kid a
couple years ago, the kid, she can’t talk at the time, they assume that she is the babysitter or something, and it’s awkward, it’s awkward– – [Kelly] That’s so weird, we’re such a multicultural.. America is
a melting pot of everyone. You see it everywhere here– – [Mike] Yeah, it’s annoying. – [Kelly] I love that about America. (audience clapping) – [Kelly] Yeah. This is what I love, too, you’re open to keeping in contact with all of the biological parents, right? – [Keia] Yes. – You’re open, I think that that’s a really cool thing. – [Keia] Yes, it has to be. You know, I think that
it’s really important to keep them connected, you know, to their birth families. I call
it my bonus families. I don’t want to ever put
my children in a position to where they’re questioning,
like, well why didn’t you, you know, uh uh. No. You know, I would rather them know, and especially that one. (audience laughing) – [Mike] He’ll burn out soon. – [Kelly] Alright, well, we
have one of the biological parents here today who
wanted to say thank you. Come on out, John! (audience cheering) – [Kelly] Thank you, how are you doing? – [John] I’m good, how are you? – [Kelly] Nice to see you! – [Keia] Oh my god! – [John] How you doing? (audience applauding) – It’s been awhile. – Oh my god! – [Kelly] I thought it’d be all smiles, and there’s tears, too, I’m so sorry! – No, oh my gosh, I’m so happy to see you. – What do you want to say
to the beautiful family? – I want to thank you Keia, and your family, for caring for Princeton and just everything– – No, thank you, you know, for the gift. – Oh, you’re welcome, at the time, I couldn’t, I was
seventeen, I just couldn’t, I wasn’t ready, and I’m
really really grateful for you guys. – [Kelly] Do you know how amazing that is? You are the greatest young man, to know that, man, this is more than I can handle right now, and you wanted to do something better for your child. (audience clapping) That’s the coolest.
Like, that’s a real man. That’s a real man, a real
woman that can do that. I think that it’s an amazing thing that you get to see this beautiful family that they’re with. Like, what a beautiful familey of mixed culture
and everybody’s invited, and it’s just a really nice thing. Is there anything that
you want to tell John? Have y’all met yet? – [Keia] Yes! – [Kelly] Okay! – Yep, John was right there with me, doing skin-to-skin. He
was there the very first parts and different things just led to, you know, the separation, but we got in contact with eachother
a couple weeks ago when the adoption was finalized because before then we couldn’t. – [John] Yeah. – [Kelly] Yeah. – And I told him, I was like, it’s time for you to meet your son and be aquatinted with him, but that’s it, this is our son. This is our son. (audience clapping) – I love that you just said, “our son.” Because what people don’t
realize, too, is that, I mean, I grew up with a
single mom, and it’s like, a village raises a kid.
Not just one person, not just two. A whole village
of people raises children, teachers, everybody– oh,
watch yourself, yeah I know. I love you, I just don’t want
you to die on my show, okay!