The moment Judge Jeanne Meurer puts her “magic pen” to paper and signs the document is what sisters, 13-year-old Malia and seven-year-old Jelani Daniel waited for, for three years. They are two of 37 children who have found forever families. Malia thinks of the others who are still.
“Those kids out there are sitting and waiting to be adopted, and it's really rough for the teenagers to get adopted and I'm just really happy that I am,” Malia says.
She is happy because she knows that teenagers have an only eight percent chance of being adopted. Their new parents Rachelle and Michael Daniel say they tried to have a baby for years.
“We actually fostered a six week-old infant for about four weeks and I think that was the hardest thing we've ever done,” Rachelle says. “So I think for us, it was never about having a child that was ours from the beginning. We just wanted kids that we could love and we could help make a difference in their lives.”
Rachelle learned about the girls through her former job as a CPS case worker. The Daniels believe they have great gifts, in the form of a strong marriage, stable home, and support of family and friends, to offer children from a broken home.
“A lot of the kids in the system have experienced things that I as an adult haven't experienced and wouldn't want to experience," Michael said. "So again, just giving them a place to call home, some normalcy, some comfort, some love, and it's amazing how well they will do.”
“I think of the experiences they have had in their life so far, and I know that it hasn't always been positive, and I think that they're going to use that to their advantage," Rachelle said. "I think they're going to use that to make themselves stronger.”
The Daniel family is just one family. There are nearly 6,000 children in Texas waiting to be adopted. More than 150 of them live in Travis County.
Speaking while her little sister draws pictures and practices her math skills and spelling on a dry erase board, Malia said, “I just want everybody to know the kids you think that will give you a really hard time but they will bring joy.”
While adoption does not erase Jelani's and Malia's painful past, it helps them write a new beginning.
