Community comes together to throw parade on adoption day for 2-year-old who spent 700 days in foster care
The Moody family was finally able to complete their adoption of two-year-old Isla after fostering their daughter for 700 days with a virtual adoption and a parade.
Video Transcript
CAYELA MOODY: I can't even tell you, like, just with the emotions and everything that you're processing in, you know, 700 days kind of leading up to this moment. And I woke up that morning and I was so grateful.
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When we got the call for Isla, we said yes. Honestly, we just didn't even know if, you know, at that point it would lead to her actually being placed with us.
EVAN MOODY: When we started this process, Cayela was pretty adamant that she did not want a baby. She knew herself well enough to know that she would immediately fall in love. So it was in-- finally in February of this year that we pretty much knew that we were going to be adopting her and that she was going to be a permanent member of our family.
Obviously we were not expecting a worldwide pandemic to come into play.
CAYELA MOODY: In the beginning of March, the courtroom shut down, and everything kind of closes up. And then we get a call on a Thursday, and they say, hey, the courts have reopened. And you guys have, you know, your court date set for next week. So it definitely was this like-- you know, we don't know when this is going to happen, and then you get a call. And oh, by the way, it's next week.
The virtual adoption-- so we were able to, you know, send the link to our family and invite them, which they would not have been able to be part of it. So that was super exciting.
So I got some friends, and so they messaged me probably five or six days before the adoption. And they said, we really want to celebrate, but we want, you know, you guys to be comfortable with everything. And she was like, well, what would you think of a parade? And I was like, yep, that sounds great too.
- We love you, Isla!
CAYELA MOODY: At the end, you know, I really recognized, like, they want to celebrate with us, and we really need to allow that to happen.
EVAN MOODY: Yeah.
MELISSA HANNIGAN: From the moment that we realized that Isla was going to be a Moody forever, I was so excited for the day of the adoption. And then when all of this COVID stuff happened, I was so crushed that we couldn't all be there to celebrate. And so Tami and I did balloons, and Karen got it all organized. And it was like it was a little way that we could celebrate and be a part of it without actually getting to go to the courthouse.
TAMI BISTER: Yeah, it was just fun.
- Yeah.
TAMI BISTER: It was an awesome way to celebrate the ending of all the ups and downs and the start of, you know, a new family.
CAYELA MOODY: It's one of these, like, most incredible memories that we will probably ever experience because of all of their initiative and work [INAUDIBLE].
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