The sun was beginning to dip behind the trees the afternoon the Lites family snapped the photo they had been dreaming about for more than two years. On the soft grass of their backyard, little Brooklyn sat beaming—her smile so wide it seemed to rise straight out of her soul. In her hand she held a small toy, but in front of her sat the sign that said everything her tiny voice couldn’t yet put into words.
“I spent 732 days in foster care, but today, I am ADOPTED!”
Those words had been prayed over, cried over, hoped over. And now, at last, they were true.
A Long Road to ‘Yes’
For the Lites family, the journey began quietly—an ache, a tugging, a gentle sense that someone was missing from their home. They talked for months, asking each other the same question over and over: “Are we ready to open our hearts like this?”
Foster care is not for the faint of heart. It comes with uncertainty, paperwork, visits that may or may not happen, and the constant reminder that the little one you tuck into bed might someday leave your home.
But love has a way of making courage feel possible.
So they said yes.
And a few weeks later, they were handed a tiny girl with bright, curious eyes and a quiet, careful smile. Her name was Brooklyn.
Learning to Belong
Brooklyn’s first days in their home were filled with newness—new faces, new sounds, new routines. She was shy, observant, and cautious, the way children often are when the world has already asked them to be braver than their age deserves.
But the Lites family made sure she never had to do that alone again.
“Come here, sweetheart,” her new mom would whisper, kneeling down with open arms.
“You’re doing so well,” her dad would tell her as she took wobbly steps on the living-room rug.
Bit by bit, the walls she had built around her little heart began to fall. She learned that bedtime meant safety, not fear. That laughter was welcome and noise was okay. That hugs didn’t disappear, and promises weren’t temporary.
Brooklyn began to bloom.
Everyday Miracles
There were big milestones—first holidays, first real belly laughs, first time she reached out on her own to be held. But it was the small, ordinary moments that felt like miracles.
The way she clapped wildly when she learned to say a new word.
The way she toddled behind her mom, wanting to help with anything—laundry, cooking, watering plants.
The way she twirled in the kitchen whenever music played, turning the floor into her stage.
And the way she slowly, quietly began calling them “Mommy” and “Daddy,” as if trying the words on for size until they fit just right.
The Day Everything Became Official
After 732 days—almost exactly two years—came the moment they had been holding their breath for.
Court day.
Paperwork. Signatures. A judge’s final, warm smile.
“You are now—and forever—Brooklyn’s parents,” he said.
Those words washed over the room like sunlight.
Brooklyn didn’t understand the legal meaning, not yet. But she understood the emotion. She understood the joy. She felt it in the way her parents lifted her high, in the laughter that filled the hallway, in the way people clapped and wiped their eyes.
And later, at home, she felt it in the yard where she sat on her little blue toy bike, where her smile grew so big it seemed to fill her whole face.
A Forever Family
On September 14, 2016, Brooklyn didn’t just gain a last name—she gained a forever story.
A place where she is chosen. Wanted. Loved without condition.
A home where the next 732 days will look nothing like the first.
As her mom later said, running her hand gently through Brooklyn’s hair:
“We didn’t just adopt her. She completed us.”
And Brooklyn, joyful and bright, continues to grow into a little girl who knows—deep in her bones—what it feels like to belong.
Credit: Together We Rise
