Finding happiness in the everyday things

THE PARENTS: Shannon Algeo, 33, and Pete DeLago, 37, of Lansdale

THE KIDS: Sloane Bella, 2; Francesca (Frankie) Cadhla, born June 30, 2022

THEIR NAMES: Each daughter’s name honors Shannon’s Irish heritage and Pete’s Italian ancestry; their middle names (“Cadhla” is pronounced “KAY-LA”) both mean “beautiful.”

Shannon and Pete had completed stacks of preadoption paperwork. A social worker had visited for a home study. Then, on the morning of Jan. 7, 2020, Shannon woke up feeling wrecked.

“I thought I was dying. I had insane fatigue and really bad heartburn on top of a sinus infection. I couldn’t breathe. I’d never felt that sick in my life.” A doctor at the urgent-care clinic suggested a pregnancy test. Shannon was stunned by the result.

Two months later, as she was snapping out of a nausea-and-fatigue-filled first trimester, the pandemic arrived.

“I wasn’t even planning on being pregnant, and then there was this virus: Are we going to die? Are we going to be able to protect this baby?” Shannon recalls wondering. At the 20-week ultrasound, Pete fidgeted in the parking lot, scanning the clinic windows for a sign from Shannon.

But as the weeks ticked on, Shannon found refuge in quarantine. Though she missed in-person time with three cousins who were also pregnant — ”we didn’t get to take any bump pictures together” — she savored the respite from her usual 80-hour-a-week schedule as a lacrosse coach at Gwynedd-Mercy University.

“I got to rest and relax and eat healthy food and not travel,” she says. They did a gender reveal in the backyard; Pete painted a lacrosse net on a big piece of wood, then the two used lacrosse sticks to lob plastic eggs loaded with pink powder. Friends and family, watching via Zoom, erupted in cheers.

The two met by happenstance; both were moonlighting at a Dick’s Sporting Goods in Scranton, where Shannon was also working as an assistant coach and Pete, who’d graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., was shifting careers after finding restaurant work too depleting.

“I kept asking her for dates, and she kept saying no. I think she liked my persistence,” he says.

She also liked how much the two laughed when they were together — and the fruits of Pete’s culinary training. “I’d come home and he’d have made enchiladas from scratch. He made brownies for my team. He shows his love through cooking.”

He proposed three times: once, impulsively, after they’d been together less than a year. “We should get married,” he blurted. “You’re crazy; pump the brakes,” was Shannon’s response.

The next time, he proffered a ring one night while the two were watching television. “She said yes, with the caveat that I had to do it better,” Pete says. For the third pass, he bought “Will You Marry Me?” T-shirts for the players on her lacrosse team — she was assistant coach at Marywood University then — and surprised her before a practice, presenting a new ring with a pink sapphire.

They married in 2017 in Collegeville — 250 invitees including Shannon’s 25-plus first cousins — and danced all night with relatives and friends.

Adoption was their plan A. The two shared a sense of skepticism about U.S. politics and concern about the environment. “The climate’s not in the best shape, and that really scared me; what world are we bringing people into?” Shannon says.

“Also, I know the system is overflowing with kids who need homes. I felt like I could provide that.”

Pete, who has an adopted brother, was on board with that plan. “But all of a sudden, Shannon’s pregnant,” he says. They hit pause on the adoption process, and Shannon talked with her cousins about what to expect from labor and birth.

Her water broke at midnight on the baby’s due date; she’d already been having contractions for 15 hours. At Grand View Hospital, nurses forbade her to eat anything but ice chips. “I pushed for four hours with no food, no sleep. Finally the doctor said, ‘I’ll give you one more push [before ordering a C-section].’ I prayed: Give me the strength to get this baby out.”

When the doctors were checking Sloane, Pete reached out a finger, and the baby grabbed it. “What color are her eyes?” Shannon asked. He couldn’t answer through his tears.

The early days of parenthood weren’t easy — Sloane had jaundice, the September days were growing shorter and darker, and she needed to be held constantly — but both Shannon and Pete were certain they wanted another.

They tried to time conception so they would have a baby during Shannon’s summer break. “We got pretty lucky, and knocked it the first time,” Pete says.

This pregnancy felt so different that Shannon was sure the baby must be a boy. Her emotions were ragged: a bite of white cake from Wegmans made her cry; so did a scene on Survivor in which a cast member got hurt. “Also, we weren’t in a shutdown, I was going to work every day, and we had a toddler. It was really, really tiring.”

Shannon wanted a more holistic prenatal and birth experience; she opted to work with midwives and deliver at Einstein Medical Center Montgomery. When the baby was late, she scheduled an induction but began having contractions naturally at 5:30 a.m. Francesca was born after a mere three pushes later that afternoon. “It was as enjoyable as labor can be,” Shannon says.

Initially, Sloane was nonplussed by her infant sister. “Baby bye-bye. OK, baby go home,” she repeated. Now, it’s clear the girls have bonded. Sloane asks for Frankie as soon as she wakes up, and the baby seems to scan the room for her big sister.

“Becoming parents has been the most healing thing we’ve ever done,” Shannon says — a means of raising their emotional intelligence as they see the kids pick up on their own moods and feelings.

Pete notes a new sense of gratitude in the everyday: Sloane delightedly stirring water and flour when she helps him cook. “It’s an appreciation for the simple things, the little, nice things in life that are easy to look past.”