If you're looking for a heartwarming story to read today, this is it. This incredible story will make your heart grow, but I can't promise it won't make you cry.
When people dream of having a family, they usually picture the way it happens in storybooks: Prince Charming, the big white wedding, the house with the white-picket fence, and wonderful pregnancies that lead to beautiful children.
However, that isn't how it always works out.
A family can be built in so many ways, from adoption, to fostering, to taking in family members who are struggling. Creating a family is about a bond, not about a bloodline.
Millie Holloman knows that too well.
After being a foster mom to a sweet little girl for a year, Millie was finally able to sign the adoption papers. Still, she knew she never would have gotten to the point of adoption without the help of lots of people.
[H/T: Love What Matters]
For the last year, Millie Holloman has been a foster mom to an adorable little girl named Vera Wren.
On March 7, 2017, Millie signed the adoption papers that made Vera Wren officially her daughter.
In this incredible series of photos, everyone who helped make Vera's adoption possible celebrated her homecoming.
Everyone from her grandparents and cousins to the judge and photographer posed with the sign!
In a post on Instagram, Millie wrote the following note:
Yesterday was a big day for me and my girl but it wasn’t just about the two of us.
Sure, our lives are the most dramatically changed through this adoption, but Wren’s story is far reaching.
We’ve all heard the saying, “It takes a village.”
Well it’s true!
I’ve often said that when I signed up for foster care, I signed up for the heartache and pain that often come with it.
But my family and friends didn’t sign those papers, just me.
I just drug [sic] them all into it. They’ve been through the ups and downs with me.
They’ve supported me when I called crying after court hearings, or given me a shoulder to cry on when I’ve had to buckle kids in their car seat and send them off with another family to love.
They have fallen in love with these kids and they have prayed big prayers for us all.
They have stepped up and filled in the gaps for the roles I can’t be to these kids.
Yesterday they cried great big tears and they celebrated alongside us!
I’m so grateful for my friends and family, those there yesterday and those who could not be with us but were in spirit!
I would not be where I am today without my village and words can’t express how much you mean to us!
Thank you for bringing Vera Wren into our tribe and loving her like your own!
Then there is our social media family, I am overwhelmed by your comments, emails, texts and phone calls!
You guys are rooting us on and loving us even from afar and you will never know how much joy it brings to our hearts to read your sweet words!
Everyone in Vera's new family was so excited to welcome her, all with different reasons for being thrilled. From little kids to grownups, everyone celebrated Vera's adoption.
Even the social worker in charge of Vera's case was able to get in on the pictures.
Social workers play such a vital role in helping foster children find forever families, so it's great that he was part of this photo series!
In another Instagram post, Millie wrote:
Vera Wren, yesterday you fulfilled a life-long dream of mine: becoming a mother.
You have made my heart come alive this past year and helped me to see life through a different lens.
I’m looking forward to a lifetime of snuggles and hugs with you!
I've finally got someone that I can ALWAYS come home too [sic]!
Welcome home little Wren, you belong here.
This is definitely a beautiful way to welcome Vera to the family — I can't even imagine how loved she feels right now.
After such a long time in foster care, this little girl finally gets to have a family of her very own.
Vera Wren is truly joining an incredible family! She'll definitely grow up to live a wonderful life.
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