Deaf Stepdad Starts Crying When Kids He's Raised for 13+ Years Surprise Him with Adoption Papers
Sometimes the father figures in our lives don’t need to share our DNA in order to earn the “Dad” title.
Deidre Blankenship’s older children know this all too well. When she married Hank, he stepped confidently into the “Dad” role for her kids Alexander and Cassidy.
Hank and Diedre had two more children together after their marriage 13 years ago, but Hank made sure that Alexander and Cassidy never felt like stepchildren.
One night while he was eating dinner, Diedre and the children had a special surprise for him.
Both Diedre and Hank are deaf, so she signed for Hank to stop eating and sit in the middle of the room. Suspicious, he did as he was asked.
The family gathered around him while Cassidy stood up and expressed her gratitude to the man who became her dad when she was only two years old. She then opened a tri-fold project board that had many pictures of Hank with her.
In the middle of the board it said, “Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad.”
Hank was overcome with emotion and began to cry, but he had no idea that this was just the beginning of an elaborate plan.
Hank and Diedre’s youngest children walked toward their dad with shirts that read, “We want a whole brother and sister, not halves.”
Cassidy then handed him a gift bag. When he opened it, there was a T-shirt and a packet of papers inside. The T-shirt read, “Daddy. You are as smart as Iron Man, as strong as Thor, as fast as Flash, as brave as (Batman). You are our superhero.”
The packet of papers was actually adoption paperwork; she was asking him to become her legal father.
He barely laid eyes on the papers before tears fell from his eyes again.
Cassidy got up to hug him. As the two were hugging, Alexander stepped up. “I got one, too,” he signed. Hank could barely believe it.
Hank was left speechless after their grand gesture, but the love he has for all four of his kids is evident.
All he could muster up to say is, “Thank you, I really appreciate it.”
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