Hello, ladies.
Hi.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you for having us.
Well, this is a great story.
It's such a great story.
OK, so it must feel really good to be adopted.
Yes, it does.
So the feeling of being adopted to me
was like beyond explainable.
Something that I always wanted in my entire life,
so for it to finally happen, it was just--
I can't even explain right now how I felt that day.
You're 19 now?
19, I'll be 20 in September.
And you were 19 when you were adopted.
Yes, a month ago.
You go 19 years without having a family,
and I mean look at this, this is amazing.
Let's start from the beginning.
Malia, you've been in foster care your whole life.
Yes.
Right.
And when did you meet Leah?
So I met Leah when I was about 13 years old.
She became my adoption specialist.
My case got switched from reunification to adoption.
No, I did not want to be adopted.
So when I met her I didn't like her
I didn't want to have anything to do with her.
But over time I got to know her and you know got used to her.
You didn't-- because you didn't trust people?
You just--
I didn't want to be adopted.
I didn't want to--
I felt like if I were adopted I would have had to move out
of my county, switched schools.
I didn't want to do any of that.
Right.
So I kind of was not interested in meeting her,
because she's going to force a family on me.
She's going to force me to do all
this stuff I didn't want to do.
Right.
And and you formed a bond because you didn't force her,
right?
Correct.
Yeah, so how was the bond formed?
Well the first three months were really rough,
and I just kind of told her, look
I'm going to take this at your speed.
I'll do whatever you want.
If you want to stay in county.
You want to be out of county, but close.
You just tell me, I won't force you to do anything.
And then she just kind of opened up.
How soon in did you start calling her mom?
When I was about 16 years old.
So that was a few years after knowing her, and having her
around.
She was hands on in my life.
Like it didn't matter, even when she
switched from being my caseworker,
she became my mentor.
So she stood by my side.
She was monitoring everything I was doing.
I danced through high school, so she was entertaining me
in that.
Like she supported me in everything,
so I felt like I deserved to call her mom because she played
that mom role even though they didn't allow her to be my mom.
She still played my mom role.
Right.
And when you're saying they didn't allow her,
because of your job you weren't able to adopt her?
Correct.
So how did you change that?
Well I was watching a documentary
in December of this--
2020.
And it was about an adult who had gotten adopted.
And I didn't even know that was a thing, so then I asked her.
I said is this still something that you would want?
And she knows I prank people.
So she was like yeah, sure.
And then I gave her paperwork and I asked her, do just
want to change your last name?
And I think I hit her.
Yeah, I was like oh this for real?
Yeah.
Because at first like I didn't even hear about adult adoption.
I don't know what that was, in all my life
I've been in foster care, and working
throughout the foster care industry,
I knew nothing about adoption.
So when she said that I was like what are you talking about?
But sure.
But I mean, like how-- so how emotional was that day?
What was that?
I mean you said you--
Did you see us ugly crying?
Yeah, I mean, you know.
You are waiting for this your whole life.
My whole life.
And for her to adopt me, I waited six years.
So like I said that moment was beyond explainable.
Like the only thing I could do to express what I felt, was
like I felt like crying because it was just--
like I said overwhelming.
Yeah.
I wasn't even prepared for that day.
Yeah, yeah.
Well I'm sure.
You know, you thought well I know this is going to happen,
but when it finally does happen you can't really
prepare for that.
But you're both huge advocates now for foster
and why is that important?
Well, like I said, growing up in care it was hard for me.
Doing everything without parents,
I did my senior year by myself and I
went through a really bad depression
because it was like I was seeing everybody else go
through grad photos and stuff with their parents.
And then there was me doing everything by myself
and I also always felt like I wasn't worthy of parents
because I did try to pursue a relationship with both
of my parents.
And it didn't work out.
So I just-- once I turned 18 and age out of count--
aged out of foster care.
I just felt like that was it for me.
That was it.
And then like I said, maybe last year, when she texted me
it just changed everything.
Yeah.
This changes the whole game for me.
Well I mean, I can't imagine what that's like.
To go through your whole youth not having a family
and feeling like you're doing everything on your own.
So what a remarkable strong woman you are.
I mean good for you, for making it through, and having--
and just still having a smile on your face.
It's great.
All right we have to take a break, and more
with Monet and Leah after this.
You have four younger siblings and you graduated high school
early so that you could take care of them.
Yes, so it was a little hard for me
to balance going to work and school
and take care of my brother, so I stopped school unfortunately.
But, yeah I do play a big role in my brother's life.
That's great that you're still-- and that they're
lucky that they have you.
That's amazing.
So you're working at a daycare center.
Yes.
You're raising money.
You're trying to save money to--
Go to school.
Go back to school.
What do you want to do?
I want to work in early childhood education.
I want to finish my education in that.
And then I want to after I graduate, work at a school,
or maybe continue to work at the daycare,
but I also want to open my own daycare.
I mean, not daycare, I'm sorry.
Group home.
Wow.
Yes.
So, all right.
So you're going back to school.
We got you some school supplies.
OK, so there's a backpack that has all kinds
of school supplies in it.
You have some notebooks, some different things in there.
The front-- the front pocket, if you open that.
See what's in that front pocket.
Shutterfly loves helping amazing people like you,
so they know you've been saving to buy a car.
They're going to give you a brand new 2021 Kia K5.
Here, I'll hold your backpack.
You take your keys.
Oh my gosh.
Oh my God.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Get in your car.
Now you don't have to save for a car.