Dear Dads,
Let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Meg. I was born in 1999, so that makes me 19.

I'm a sophomore English major at Ithaca College, and I met my dad when I was 6. No, I was not in the system.

I'm not even legally adopted. That doesn't matter to me. Allow me to explain. My biological father died when I was three. I do not know him.

I couldn't pick his voice out in a lineup. I have one very foggy memory with him in it. It is the earliest memory I have of my life at all.

When I refer to my "dad," he's not who I am speaking of. My mom met my dad three years after my biological father died.
Apparently I was very shy and whispered to my mother to ask him if he wanted me to get him a soda from the fridge.

I vaguely remember sitting at the top of the steps in my first grade school uniform while I waited to meet him. This is my second or third earliest memory. My parents married when I was nine.

This is one of my favorite pictures from my parents' wedding. They look so happy, it's so cute

My little brother and I weren't legally adopted, no, but I can't call my dad a stepdad. It feels like it's more than that. Like, it would be weird to call him "Rob". Super weird. He's dad. He'll always be dad.

My family isn't typical. My little brother was and is special needs and used to need a tube to digest. My mom and I were and are shaken by the PTSD that followed the death aforementioned. We had a lot going on.

My dad wasn't scared off by that. He loved us then and does even more so now. He's learning sign language so he can teach it to my brother.

He wears the Ithaca college ties I got him for Christmas all the time. He has never missed a show I've been in, he reads every single one of these articles I write, and he checked my math homework for my entire life.

My dad is my brother's favorite person in the entire world. Watching them interact with each other is like 90% of the reason I want to be a parent one day myself.

He's the best dad in the world and I know I'm biased but I'm also right. As far as I'm concerned, my dad is my adoptive father. We don't need a title or a piece of paper to tell us that. We don't need to have the same last name. I love my dad, and he is my dad. No one else is or ever will be.

Adoptive fathers, I want you to know that your daughter thinks the world of you. You chose her. She knows that.
DNA doesn't matter. Here's what does. You will hug her when she graduates high school and college. If she gets married, you will walk her down the aisle at her wedding.

You are the one who reassures her when she's overwhelmed. You're the one whose unconditional love and support moves her to tears as she writes an Odyssey article about you as her roommate snores next to her. That's what makes a dad.

You'll make sassy remarks with her while you both intensely watch "Cupcake Wars," or once during "Alien" (which, by the way, is very hard to be sassy about, but you guys have a good banter system. You're funny together.)

You'll have weird inside jokes revolving around club soda with her. Sometimes you'll start having conversations about politics and social change and you'll tell her that she and her peers give you hope for the future. She'll never forget that.

You are the one who will make her into the woman you tell her you're so proud of. For that, I thank you. My dad is the best. You are too.

My dad, who has been taking ASL classes for awhile now, signing "blue" with my brother (because they're both wearing blue shirts)

Thank you for choosing your daughter. Thank you for raising her. Thank you for scaring the crap out of her when you yell about how she doesn't clean her room. She'll be pissed when she's twelve, but she'll get it eventually (or at least sort of).

Like three days ago, my dad heard I was having a rough semester and texted me to tell me he was proud of me no matter what happens. Thank you, adoptive fathers, for giving your children that.

And to my dad, personally, thank you for seeing me. Thank you for believing in me, and thank you for choosing all of us. I love you. And my gratefulness for you is too powerful to put into words.

Sincerely,
A Daughter Who Really Needed A Dad, And Got The Best One There Is.