To the step parent who chose to adopt me;

I first want to say thank you for stepping up as a parent. You did not have to be part of my life. You did not have to choose to love me, take care of me, support me, or even bother being there for me. Though you did. You decided to step up to the plate and take care of a child that was not yours. You choose to take care of a child that you did not have to bring into your life. A child that did not know how to have that certain gender parent in my life. Did not know how to have a father figure. Did not know how to have a dad. Many people would not even acknowledge the child or let them into their heart. Though you did.

You are not only my step parent, but you are my parent. You showed me what it was like to accept what was missing. Not only were you the parent that was not always missing, but you were willing to accept me, be the other parent in my life to a limit. If the other parent was more around, was apart of my life, and had my love, you would of been okay with that. As a parent, you didn't have to share me with another parent, but you would of tried if it would been part of my life.

I want to say thank you for loving my mother. Not only my mother but me. You did not have to love my mom. You did not have to accept the fact that she had a child from another relationship. Though you let that go. You choose to love my mother unconditionally who then was my entire world. Now I continue to love her for what she did for me and what she still does for me. Loving someone else's child is not always the easiest for people to do. Since it is a smaller human being that you do not know and there was a part of their life that you where not a part of. Now you are coming into their life and about to turn some of their life upside down. Since now that my mom was not spending all her spare time with me, but spending a lot of her time with you to.

You did not have to push me the way you did. You did not have to push me to do my best, even at my worst. Most step parents would not have even cared to push the child to do their best at everything they did. School, sports, or anything that needed support to do my best at. Even when I felt down on my luck, you were there. That is what a parent is supposed to do.

Not only did you step up to be my parent, you gave me siblings that I love more than life itself. Siblings that I torment and tease at my own expense. Those siblings not only are a pain in my butt, but they are a joy. They might not share a biological parent as I do, but you showed them that you were still my parent. Raised me the same way you would do them. Never any treatment different because I was not fully yours. My parents only knew you as my parent. My one and only parent. They will one day understand the situation of what happened of why another parent is not in my life but they will understand the love that you had for me.

Thank you for being patient with me before I called you dad. I am sorry that it took me several years to say it, even after you adopted me. You were patient with that. That it was not what I wanted to call you right away. That the term is not what I had called anyone in my life before you came in. You never pushed me to say it. You knew that I would come around to it and that I eventually would say it to you. That you would be my dad. Once I finally got used to saying it, you have always been dad since. That was your name. Dad.

Though most of all, I want to thank you for making the choice to adopt me. Wanting me to be a part of your life forever. Wanting to make it official that I am not just your wife's daughter from a previous marriage but I am your daughter. Not only did you make the decision, you made sure that I was okay with it. It was not only that you were adopting me and changing my last name, it was making sure that I wanted the same thing. That I wanted to be a part of your family as much as you wanted me in yours. That you wanted to take a child and make it a bigger part of your life forever. Especially since that, I was no longer your "step daughter" but I was your oldest daughter. I was your daughter through and through. To people who never knew us, I was your daughter. I was your kin. Though today when people look at us when anyone ever explains that I am adopted, it's just a look that we shrug off. Not everyone needs to know, but when they do they shrug it off like no big deal. For you were the only one there, therefore no matter what you are my parent. You have been there for every game, every graduation, every little thing that was big in my life at that moment.

Love,

The child that you choose to love and adopt.