Toddler Yells 'Dad' During Adoption Hearing, That 1 Word Tells Judge All He Needs to Know
Mandi and Tyler Palmer always wanted to have a child, but Mandi couldn’t seem to get pregnant.
“After failed pregnancy test and failed pregnancy test, I talked to my doctors,” she told WTOL-TV.
“They were still hopeful, but I realized quickly that I couldn’t gain weight. So I’m like, ‘how am I going to be able to carry a child?'” she said. Being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease also complicated their dreams.
“We kept hearing the cry for foster parents in our area. So we talked about it and prayed about it and we signed up for the classes,” Mandi explained.
“Once we got licensed as foster-to-adopt parents, that week, we got the phone call for Hunter,” she told People.
Since then, they’ve been dreaming of the day they’d get to make their family official.
“We went and picked him up at Children’s Services. We brought him home and we went through the roller coaster ride of foster care for that entire year,” Mandi added.
After a year of uncertainty, the Palmers finally got word that they’d be able to start the adoption process.
They went to the courthouse and signed the paperwork to try to make their family complete.
“It was very emotional, in a good way. We had all of our family and friends there,” Mandi said.
“At the end of the court process, the judge announced [Hunter’s] new legal name. And they read the adoption decree and that’s when Hunter looked at my husband and he said, ‘Dad!’
“He just started clapping and everybody just started crying,” she recalled. “It was so emotional. It’s definitely rewarding.
“It’s nice to look in his eyes now and not have to worry that he’s ever gonna have to leave us again.”
Although Mandi and her husband were hesitant to enter the foster program, Mandi felt like she got a little urging from the man upstairs.
“We prayed on it, and we just felt like God pushed us to do it,” she told People.
Now, Mandi knows why. Their family was officially completed, and Hunter’s last name matches his parents’.
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