Chelsea Houska and her husband Cole DeBoer are still on the fence about DeBoer’s possible adoption of her daughter Aubree, but they’re making great strides.
In PEOPLE’s exclusive sneak peek from Monday’s episode of Teen Mom 2, the couple discusses the absence of Aubree’s birth father, Adam Lind, to MTV producer Mandi.
“I said, ‘Are you going to tell your grandma that he didn’t come to lunch?’ She said, ‘Yeah, that’s the first thing I’m going to say,'” Houska explains, referring to Lind’s habit of canceling plans to spend time with his 9-year-old daughter.
When Mandi asks if DeBoer is still considering adopting Aubree, he and Houska explain he would be happy to — but doesn’t want to cause her more pain.
“A lot of people don’t understand,” Houska says. “My mom thinks we should pursue it right away, my dad doesn’t. [Aubree] doesn’t know everything we know [about Lind]. She doesn’t know everything so she wouldn’t understand really why we would do it.”
DeBoer continues, “She would resent us, which is why I don’t want to do it right now.”
“It’s just nice to let her do her own thing at her own pace,” the mom of three adds.
The couple is looking on the bright side for now, revealing Aubree had called DeBoer “Dad” for the first time.
“She wrote me a note, [writing], ‘to Dad,'” he says proudly.
Houska is equally excited, gushing, “She did! She saved these fortune cookies and she wanted to show Cole so she wrote a note and she said, ‘I’m going to write a note saying: to Dad.’ Because she knew he’d like it.”
“She said, ‘For Dad, from Aubree,'” DeBoer reads. “‘This fortune is for you. You will touch the hearts of many, and you will travel far and wide and touch many lives along the way.'”
“I thought it was great,” he adds.
Teen Mom 2 airs Mondays (9 p.m. ET) on MTV.
