Last Monday, August 1st, 2022, we finally adopted our boys! My therapist has encouraged me to find other words to describe my life experiences: happy, sad, mad, glad are no longer serving the nuances that are my life as a black, gay, dad. You would think that after 4.5 years of surviving the foster care system, fighting for the well-being of our boys, that on the day we adopted them I would feel “happy.” I did not. I could not locate that feeling. The only word that I could find was: “relief.” I felt relieved. For them. For us. For our incredible friends, family, and community who have stood by us through the emotional twists and turns of this flawed system. The truth is, Matt and I are lucky. We watched many of our foster family friends lose their foster children under circumstances that felt insane, unimaginable, and unjust. For some reason, we were spared that heartache. We were certainly bruised along the way, but we remained hopeful. And then last week, through a beautiful twist of fate: we were able to adopt Galileo & Apollo. On the same day. In the same courtroom where we fought many battles. We became a legal family. Brothers forever. Our sons forever: Spider-Man & Baby Shark. And now that a week has passed and the reality has set in, my “relief” has turned into pure, unadulterated...joy. ❤️‍🔥 *(As of today, there are 35,000+ children in the LA County Foster Care System waiting to be reunified or adopted). 📸 @sophieandreassend