What was the best birthday present you’ve ever received?
No matter what you’re thinking right now, David Lynde would say that what his stepdaughter gave him for his 53rd birthday tops everyone else’s.
And, after reading this story, I think you will agree with David.
Gabriella Guardado, a 22-year-old from Florida, recently gave her stepdad the best possible birthday gift.
As the video shows, everyone including Gabriella gathered around David to celebrate him.
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Then, Gabriella gives David a shopping bag. Excited, he quickly digs through the bag and pulls out a stack of paper.
Holding the stack in his hand, he reads out the first page, then skims through the pages. At first, he does not seem to understand what these papers were about.
Then, David finally gets it.
These papers were legal documents prepared by Gabriella, who was asking David to legally adopt her.
As you can imagine, David was moved by this present.
He started crying, and said, “wow, Gabby, you have no idea…
“Gabby you have no idea how much that means to me. You have no idea.”
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It actually turned out that Gabriella had been wanting David to adopt her ever since she was 10. However, her biological father would not sign off on it.
When she became 18, Gabriella gave up on the adoption process since she was legally an adult.
Still, with or without the legal documents, Gabriella always looked up to him as a great father.
But, after a few years, Gabriella’s boyfriend mentioned to her that she could still legally become his daughter.
He told her about something called “adult adoption”. Basically, the adoptive parent(s) and the adopted child voluntarily agree to the adoption.
Although the details to the process vary between states, this agreement would allow a legally binding parent-child relationship.
And that’s how Gabriella did it!
On her Facebook post, which described the whole process, she said that “[David] helped me grow into the young woman that I am and helped me through all the hard times of getting through nursing school and becoming a young adult.”
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If you want to watch the whole process unfolding, watch this video below –
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