When I met my now-wife, she had a 3-year-old daughter. When she was around 4 she even started calling me daddy. She’s 13 now, and her biological dad comes in and out of her life. Last night she was visiting with her bio dad when I got a text from her wondering if I could pick her up. Well, I got there, she came over to my car and told me she didn’t want to stay there anymore. Then, right as she buckled in, she looked at me and asked, “Can I just call you Dad again? For real this time?”

It caught me completely off guard. I didn’t know whether to cry, laugh, or just squeeze her hand and keep driving. So I did all three. Her voice was small, like she wasn’t sure how I’d react. But I’d waited almost ten years to hear her say that again, and she had no idea what it meant to me. Continues…