Open and honest. Teen Mom OG star Catelynn Baltierra (née Lowell) and husband Tyler Baltierra sat down with their second-oldest daughter, Nova, to explain to her the story about the adoption of her older sister, Carly, on their firstborn child’s 12th birthday.
“We chose a semi-open adoption when we had Carly 12 years ago,” Catelynn, 29, said in In Touch‘s exclusive sneak peek clip of the Tuesday, November 12 episode of Teen Mom OG. “Her parents don’t have to give us visits, but we always do something for her birthday.”
The MTV mama continued, “Now that Nova’s older, I’m curious how much she comprehends about the adoption.”
Catelynn — who was pregnant at the time with baby girl No. 4 — and Tyler, 29, sat down at their dining room table with Nova, 6, and their 2-year-old daughter, Vaeda, for a pizza dinner in honor of Carly’s birthday. “Do you know what today is?” the Michigan native asked her second-oldest.
“It’s Carly’s birthday,” Nova adorably answered before suggesting to her parents, “Well maybe we like, buy a toy or something?”
Catelynn told Nova that she thought Carly would love to have something that Nova made herself as a gift, and Nova had the perfect idea. “Well, maybe I can put my hand and just go like that,” she said, placing her hand down on the table and pretending to trace her handprint. “Then write, “I love you …’ uh…” she said before trailing off, telling her mom and dad she wasn’t sure how to spell her big sister’s name.
Then Catelynn asked Nova if she wanted to send Carly a video of her singing happy birthday, and she said, “OK!” Little Nova sang and smiled for the camera as Cate recorded her as she and Tyler sang along.
“You guys look a lot alike,” Tyler told Nova. “You do,” mama Cate agreed. “It’s almost like God purposely cloned her for us.”
Catelynn started to tell Nova the story about Carly’s birth and adoption. “Twelve year ago, mommy and daddy were at the hospital and had Carly,” Cate said. “You were a little bit younger,” Nova noted.
“I was a lot younger,” the Conquering Chaos coauthor explained. “Oh man, that’s not cool!” Nova said.
Cate and Ty laughed, and then Nova asked, “Well, why did you guys even do that?” Dad Ty answered honestly, “Because we didn’t make very good choices.” Cate added, “We weren’t being very smart when we were younger. Then Brandon [Davis] and Teresa [Davis] came up there to meet Carly.”
“Because since you didn’t have any baby stuff, you gave it to those people,” Nova said and Tyler explained, “Because they couldn’t have no baby [sic].”
Nova added, “Yeah, they were hoping and they had baby stuff.” Tyler responded, “Yeah. They had baby stuff and they were hoping for a baby so bad, they couldn’t have one.”
“Yeah, so we gave them the baby, so now they’re happy,” Nova sweetly replied. Tyler laughed as Catelynn said, “That pretty much sums it up!”
The couple went on to explain that she is Carly’s little sister and Carly is Nova’s big sister just like Nova is Vaeda’s big sister and Vaeda is her little sister — but it seemed Nova was a little overwhelmed by that piece of information. “Yeah so, uh,” Nova said. “I’m going to be thinking about this my whole entire life.”
Teen Mom OG airs on MTV Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.