10-year-old boy asks stepdad to adopt him with a letter and life has never seemed more beautiful
Get your tissues ready...
Kalani Watson decided to make his 10th birthday celebration less about him and more about his loving family when he asked his stepdad, Brandon, to adopt him in the most touching handwritten letter.
At his birthday party in Los Angeles, Kalani turns the tables on Brandon and hands him a wrapped gift. After describing what their relationship means to him and all the special things they do together, Kalani has some very important questions to ask his soon-to-be legal guardian.
"Do you love me?," he asks. "Do you love mom? Can you live without us?"
Of course, Brandon makes it clear that he loves both Kalani and his mother, Porsche, and shakes his no when asked if he can live without them.
Kalani concludes the letter with, "So let’s stop playing and make it official. Brandon Craig Williamson, will you do me the biggest favor in the world? Will you adopt me?”
Cue the waterworks. Brandon immediately starts to cry and wraps his new son in the tightest hug. Inside the wrapped gift Kalani gives to Brandon is a blank adoption application.
According to HuffPost, the family began planning this moment two months ago when Kalani asked Porsche if he could have Brandon's last name. After Porsche explained the adoption process to Kalani, they got to work. Kalani originally wanted to wait to ask Brandon on Father's Day, but he just couldn't wait any longer.
“We all just cried,” Porsche said of their reaction after Kalani asked. “I knew this was going to break [Brandon] down. Like the time my son asked if he could call him dad he was four. He has so much love for Brandon and he was so nervous once the day was here. He kept going over it the day before.”
Brandon said that although their family has been "official" for years, the gesture meant the world to him.
“I was thinking, ‘I earned this,’” Brandon explained. “Most parents automatically get their child’s love. I had to grind for this, I had to show him I’m not going anywhere. So since I have had to work hard for his love I don’t take it for granted. So it was a honor and one of the greatest moments of my life.”
Brandon often takes his stepson to hand out meals to the less fortune as a part of a local organization, The Give Back Movement to teach him about being responsible, being accountable, and caring for others.
The family is waiting to sit down at the grave of Brandon’s father, who recently passed, to fill out the paperwork.
We're so sorry to start off your day with tears, but they're happy tears. Big, happy, family tears.
Topics Family & Parenting
Samantha was a Watercooler Web Culture & Lifestyle intern at Mashable. Follow her on Twitter @samiscelz.
