Last night, while I was eating dinner and checking all of my social media platforms, I noticed that my best friend from home direct messaged me this story about a boy in Grand Rapids, Michigan who invited his entire kindergarten class to court for his adoption. My friend and I were both direct messaging and imessage texting (to emphasize the effect that this story had on us) about how emotional this story has made both of us.
On the day of his adoption, a video clip of the young boy, Michael, was taken of him declaring his love for his father, leaving the father speechless and welled up. Hearing about Michael inviting his entire class to the adoption reminded me of how it was to be that age and making a point of inviting the entire class to my birthday parties, back when the only drama was about sharing crayons. The fact that he thought of this event as something of equivalent importance to a birthday party really demonstrates how well of a job the adoptive parents, along with his teachers and classmates have done to support him in this process.
It is a pretty well-known fact that the likelihood of a child getting adopted decreases significantly once the child reaches an age beyond the toddler years. I applaud the school that Michael attends for creating an environment that feels like a family. Michael’s teacher is even quoted saying, “We began the school year as a family. Family doesn’t have to be DNA, because family is support and love.” This is so important in education, especially elementary school education because you never know what children are going through at home. It is critical for healthy child development to be surrounded by supportive people. It makes my heart so full knowing that along with his classroom family, Michael will be spending the holiday season in a new home with a new, life-long family.