By Michaela Gordoni
Hannah Harper brought Carrie Underwood to tears with her original song, “String Cheese,” about her experience with postpartum depression, PEOPLE reported.
Harper is a stay-at-home mom of three boys. She grew up singing with her family in Missouri with their band, The Harper Collective, Bluegrass Today reported.
“You’re, like, my favorite person,” Underwood told the woman before she sang. “You’re wearing homemade clothes, you’re singing songs called ‘String Cheese.’”
“My youngest is 1, and shortly after he was born I had postpartum depression, and so I was sitting on my couch — I said I wasn’t gonna cry,” Harper began.
She recalled all of her children wanting affection and attention, and she felt like crying.
“And my youngest son, I was just having a pity party, praying that the Lord would calm my spirit, and my son kept coming up to me,” she added. “He said, ‘Mom, open this. Open my cheese.’ I’m like, ‘Leave me alone with the doggone cheese.”
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“And I finally opened his cheese, and when I did, I realized God had put me in that place, and that where I was in my house was the biggest ministry that I could ever have in being a mom,” Harper said. “So, I gathered myself, and I got up off the couch, and I quit throwing a pity party, and I realized that was exactly what I wanted.”
From then on, she decided she would fight her depression.
As she told her story, Underwood told her she could take a moment so that she didn’t have to cry while singing and handed her some tissues.
She sang:
I thought finding peace in the quiet’s what I wanted / But I’d do anything to go back to being needed / To those days I want to cry, run away and cry / But I’d worry about their every need.
When I’m overwhelmed and touched out, they come climbing up on the couch / Saying ‘Mama can you open my string cheese?’ / I smile because I know meeting their needs fills my soul / Being their mama is who I’m meant to be.
When she finished, Underwood, a mom of two boys, teared up and said, “Do you have more tissues? My turn,” adding, “Well, that’s about the most relatable song I think I’ve ever heard.”
Underwood told her she’s excited to see what Harper sings next.
“I feel like I’m gonna be just rooting for you. I love everything about everything you just did. I’ll go first, it’s a yes from me,” she said.
Judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie also gave Harper a yes.
Harper previously wrote, “The thought of them growing up and not needing me one day breaks my heart, but I pray to soak in these moments while they still depend on me for their daily needs. I am incredibly thankful that the Lord entrusted me with three little boys, even on the heavy days when being a mom feels like a challenge.”
AMERICAN IDOL auditions will continue to air on Monday, Feb. 9.
Read Next: AMERICAN IDOL Alum Calls Motherhood Her ‘First Ministry’
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