When someone asks what you want for your birthday, likely material objects come to mind. Whether you’re a child or an adult, dreams of new clothes and electronics are pretty common in our society.
Yet, at the heart of things, we know that the most valuable things aren’t material at all. For one girl, that reality wasn’t hard for her to imagine.
Alabama teen Alecia knew what really mattered when she decided to get her coach something for his birthday.
Her coach, Daniel Donaldson, had coached her since 2019 and the two had gotten to know each other over the years. Daniel is a youth sports coach and has his own three kids, but when he met Alecia, he knew she was special.
14-year-old Alecia was a foster kid and had been in the system for some time.
As most people know, it’s not a wonderful way to live your life. It’s always a gamble with who you’re going to be placed with and it’s never permanent. Daniel knew about her story and he and his family had taken special care to look out for Alecia.
Soon, Daniel and his wife Tiffany decided to take the leap and become her foster parents!
It was an immediate success. Alecia fit in perfectly with their family and it was like she had always been with the Donaldsons. It’s an incredibly cute story, but that isn’t even the best part! When Daniel’s birthday was coming up, Alecia thought of the perfect way to thank him for bringing her into his family.
The teen talked to mom Tiffany, and they came up with a special plan.
Tiffany and Alecia worked together to surprise Daniel with an adoption request! They wanted to do it while they were on a beach trip for his birthday and he had no idea the surprise he was in for.
A blindfold was tied around Daniel’s eyes so he couldn’t see anything – then he was given signs to hold.
Completely unaware of what was going on, they had him hold up signs in front of a camera, telling the story of how Alecia was accepted into the family, and how her life was wildly different now. It was a truly heartwarming moment.
Finally, as they neared the end of the story, there was a special surprise.
“Today, for his birthday, I want to ask if we can make it official. He has no clue that I’m about to ask him to adopt me. Please take and read this note and then turn around.”
Daniel read the note and saw the question they had lined up with. As you can imagine, it was an emotional moment. Daniel hugged his daughter-to-be and it was clear what his decision was going to be!
After 524 days, Alecia was officially going to be a part of the Donaldson family for life!
By no surprise, their beautiful story and adoption video won hearts across the internet. One woman commented on ABC News’ YouTube channel:
“What an awesome family, stories like this always reminds me that there’s light at the end of the tunnel 🙏🏾🙏🏾”
Someone else wrote:
“Im in tears. That’s was so beautiful. All theirs smiles was like they it a big lottery. Congratulations Coach. Game well played ❤️. Now let me get these tears out my eyes”
Watch the video below to see footage of the touching surprise for yourself!
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