A girl in Danville, Alabama, celebrated his adoption at the end of January, and his entire second grade class came to the memorable ceremony.
Jasmine Brown had a long road to finding her forever family, going through placements in seven different homes throughout her three years in foster care. When the day of her adoption finally arrived, she invited her entire class to join her. All the kids were wearing matching shirts and holding signs that said, “Happy Jasmine Day.”
“Every child is so excited that she found her forever home,” said Jasmine’s teacher, Amanda Holland. ABC News.
“It was a very special time. I think it’s really cool for those kids to witness that and see how that works. You hear about adoption but if you’ve never been a part of one, you really don’t know the legality side of it and how it all goes down. So I think that was a great experience for them to be a part of that,” said principal Tara Morrow.
Jasmine’s new parents, Melanie and Anthony Brown, are no strangers to welcoming children into their home, having had 37 children since 2015. Melanie says it’s a sign from God that Jasmine has become eligible for adoption while he is under their care.
“We had to pray about it, think about it, and we realized that it was just God’s plan unfolding in front of us,” said Melanie. “That’s why we decided to hide him.”
Melanie told Good Morning America that she thought the support of her classmates would be especially important to Jasmine on her big day. “I am adopted myself and I remember the students [being] meaning — ‘Oh you are the unwanted little adopted child.’ And so, I just told my husband Anthony, I said, ‘It would be so neat, since Jasmine has been in the same school with these kids — kindergarten, first grade, second grade — if they could come’ and he said, ‘ Oh, yes, that will be fine.’ Well, I mentioned it to the teacher and he ran with it,” explained Melanie.
“To have the class there and support him that day, it’s very exciting,” Melanie said.
“They were there for me, and they loved me and they took care of me,” added Jasmine.
Melanie said that Jasmine is excited that she doesn’t have to move, and that she has a family. “When we sat him down and asked if he knew what adoption meant, he said, ‘It means I don’t have to leave this house.
