His Smile Said It All !

This story comes from a person who is part of the support group - Cafemom.com. I don't know her name or who she is, but I wanted to post it for everyone to read. This story is a story of love, devotion, and commitment. This is what I hope for when/if we get the chance to adopt our foster daughter.


As we were the final family to be called into the judge's chambers yesterday to finalize our adoption, we watched as each of the other five families were called back (one by one) before us. The first family truly made my heart burst with emotion.
It was a large group of about eight adults and no less than five children. Several of the children were of differing races so I think it's be a safe bet to say that this was probably a foster family with children from many different homes- maybe some siblings, but probably not all.
When the attorney call this family's name, a young African American boy of about 11 or so stood up immediately, turned and looked back at the rest of his group, and then headed toward the chambers with the biggest, most beautiful smile I have ever seen. This young man was ready to make this his forever family. And he was so excited, so happy. It just radiated from him! The rest of the family followed behind noisily- lol. This boy never said a word as he headed to the front of the courtroom, but that smile said it all for everyone else in that courtroom.
As the chamber doors were closed behind this first adoptive group, I finally cried. THIS is what fost-adoption is about. THIS is why I love being a foster parent and why we chose to adopt a child from the system. At about 11 years of age, that young boy was aware of whatever he had endured in his biological home. He had been through whatever "the system" had put him through in the name of his best interest. And all he wanted was a safe, happy, relatively normal (LOL) forever family. He had found that and making it official couldn't happen fast enough. Wow.
After about fifteen or twenty minutes, the doors to the judge's chambers opened and out came the newly added-to family. This young black man walked out beside his "new", white dad- still sporting that incredible grin. The dad put his hands around the boy's neck and said, "Well, son...." It was incredible.
Then they took a photo to commemorate the event right there in the front of the courtroom. This preteen, newly adopted young man kissed his new daddy....right on the top of dad's head in the middle of his bald spot.
That's a moment in time I will never, ever forget!