You Are My Sunshine, My Only Sunshine

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are grey.” This has always been my favorite song to sing to my kids and I knew I wanted it to be engraved on my Tiny Tags necklace along with my daughter and son’s name on the back. My kids have truly been the sunshine in my life, especially my daughter. When it was just my daughter and I, she became my strength and even when I was going through rough times, I found ways to stay motivated because of her. Life has changed quite a bit since my single mom days. Last year was a big year for us. My husband and I celebrated our first year wedding anniversary this past summer and we also welcomed our baby boy into our family in the same month. We grew our family with a new baby but we also made our family official with the process of adoption.

I met Brian when Bella was only 1 1/2 and Bella has been a part of our love story since the beginning. When Brian proposed to me with his late grandmother’s wedding ring, he also gave Bella a piece of his heart symbolically with a heart necklace that she wore on our wedding day. Brian has been there with me on this parenting journey on the sidelines, but stepped in to play the role of dad once we moved in together when Bella was three. He has not only been there for the big celebrations and milestones, but also for the little everyday moments as well.

We decided to take a leap of faith and begin the adoption process so that Brian could become her official dad. It was a grueling, emotional, and extremely stressful process but after 13 months it all became official at the trial in December. As we walked out of the courtroom, Brian and I breathed the biggest sigh of relief and were overcome with emotions of peace and joy. What we knew in our hearts to be true all this time had finally became official on paper. This past Christmas and Hanukkah we got the best gift we could have ever hoped for the gift of our family.

—Ria P.