Passengers shower new parents and just-adopted daughter with love on their 1st flight as a family


It was a flight Dustin and Caren Moore will never forget.
On Nov. 9, the Moores boarded a Southwest Airlines plane in Colorado, headed to California. They arrived in Colorado as a pair but left as a trio; the Moores were flying home with their newly adopted infant daughter, who was just eight days old. When asked by a flight attendant why they were traveling with such a small baby, the Moores shared a bit of their story, and soon the whole plane knew.
A flight attendant named Bobby announced over the intercom that the Moores, who had been trying to start a family for nine years, were flying home with their new daughter. The entire plane "just erupted in cheers and whistles," Dustin told Good Morning America. Flight attendants passed out napkins to passengers so they could write down words of encouragement and advice for the new parents. "We were stunned and overwhelmed," Dustin said.
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Bobby collected about 60 napkins and read some of the messages ("Always tell her you love her!" "Drink lots of wine!") over the intercom, before delivering the stack to Dustin and Caren. Passengers kept coming up to the family to offer their congratulations, which made the trip all the more special. After having a bad day at work last week, Dustin wanted to spread some positivity, and he shared the story of his daughter's first airplane trip on Twitter. "I want people to take away from this that there's a lot more good going on in the world than you might consider," he told GMA.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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