By Grace Sullivan, Social Media Editor
One morning two days after Christmas, junior Sam Fitzgerald received a gift much more significant than a bike or a trampoline.
“I was outside playing with my new Razor Rip-Rider I had gotten, and my parents talked to me about getting a little sister,” Fitzgerald said.
The news of this new addition came from a phone call Fitzgerald’s parents received the night after Christmas; however, the family first considered adoption years after their youngest son was born.
“I was 6 years old and we found out we were gonna have a third sibling. Fingers were crossed for it to be a girl, because my little brother and I were wreaking havoc,” Fitzgerald said. “And ‘Star Wars’ was not my mom’s favorite. We found out it was going to be a boy. We weren’t upset or disappointed, though.”
Even after the birth of Fitzgerald’s youngest brother, the family never gave up hope on having a little girl.
”Years went by and my mom really wanted a little girl still and was thinking about adoption,” Fitzgerald said. “She felt like she had been called to adopt and had been praying about having this little girl.”
Following the birth of Fitzgerald’s youngest brother, his family moved from Georgia to Kentucky, where his mom, Brandie, began working in a group home for young moms. While there, Brandie developed a relationship with one of those mothers, and kept in touch with her even after moving to Virginia in 2011.
Although Fitzgerald and his family moved, they had yet to move on from their dream of having a little girl. Then, however, the Fitzgerald’s got the call of a lifetime in 2013.
“We were at my Grandma’s house for Christmas and my mom gets a call from the girl she had kept in touch with,” Fitzgerald said. “She was saying how she was having another baby, but wouldn’t be able to take care of it, and was asking if we would like to take care of her.”
Though this was the end of the search for a little girl and all of the problems seemed to have been solved, it was the beginning of a new – and oftentimes complicated – journey for the family.
“We got an adoption lawyer and everything was set up, but it was back and forth toward the end if the mother wanted to keep the child or not. We had everything ready and were picking names,” Fitzgerald said. “My mom was going to pick Lila up, but the birth mom was really indecisive and had thought she came to the conclusion that she didn’t want to give up the baby.”
Four months of back-and-forth decision making between the two mothers finally led to the adoption of Lila for the Fitzgeralds. Since her adoption, Lila has taught her family a wealth of lessons.
“It put a whole new perspective about having open doors and being able to accept people that aren’t really like you, which is funny now because she has definitely adopted all of me and my brothers’ personality traits and is one of us,” Fitzgerald said.
Lila hasn’t just become a new part of Fitzgerald’s family, but has become one of his biggest fans, too.
“After every sports game she is always watching, and my dad points me out to her and she’ll say, ‘Go Nighthawks!’ and then after the game she’ll come up to me and give me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald’s friends have also fallen in love with Lila.
“When I go over to Sam’s house, I walk in and Lila yells, ‘Hey Parker’ and I’m the only friend whose name Lila knows,” junior Parker Sylvia said. “She also has an imaginary friend named Parker, which is so funny. It’s so great because I just love hearing her yell my name and everyone gets so mad when she doesn’t know their name.”
Though Lila has only been a part of his family for a few years, Fitzgerald’s life has been changed forever.
“This has been such an awesome thing, it’s something I’ve thought about doing when I’m older for sure. It has positively shaped almost every aspect of my life,” Fitzgerald said. “The family has changed in less of a sense in blood but more along the lines of whoever you’re super close to in life is considered family.”
Junior Grace Sullivan can be reached at sullivangr1129@daretolearn.org.
