With my adoption day right around the corner, I knew I wanted to write about it this year. I was adopted on March 6, 2005, but this isn't a typical adoption story. When people think of adoption, they commonly picture a child coming from another country or the foster system, having no parents. Well, my story is a little different.

My mom and I were always a package deal: we had been since the day I was born. She was a single mom who worked incredibly hard and knew that when the time came, the right man would love me just as much as he loved her. My mom met my dad when I was 4, and they got engaged about a year later.

It didn't take me very long to love my dad. At first, I felt a little jealous, my mom was my best friend after all and he took away a little of my attention (only child problems, am I right?). But almost immediately, he treated me like I was his own daughter. We would go to church together on Sundays and get brunch after. He was always there, every dance recital or school performance or soccer game, he was in the crowd cheering me on.

My parents chose to get married legally on my birthday, September 2nd, 2004, so that they would be able to kickstart the adoption process. It was lengthy and complicated, and at the time I didn't necessarily understand or appreciate any of it. Yet I look back at the pictures of my adoption day now and feel so much joy. We got all dressed up and went to the courthouse, and the judge asked if I accepted Paul as my dad. I said yes and even got to sit in the judge's chair and bang the gavel to officiate my adoption. My dad legally adopted me and made me his daughter in March, and my parents announced it at their wedding ceremony that April. The most special part was until that moment, only we knew, the three of us. It was our secret and surprising everyone with it as an official family was the best feeling.

We celebrate my "gotcha" day, or the day I was adopted every year. It's a little harder now with me being away at college, but my dad has always made it a big deal. It's one of my favorite days of the year: I feel so celebrated and reminded how loved I am. I am so blessed to have such a supportive family and a dad who cares for me so much. I know he would do anything for me and has every moment he has been in my life.