SAN ANTONIO — This has been quite the week for the Blake family! 'It was just finally a relief to have it legally done', said adoptive dad, Tim Blake. 'Miranda has been in the home since October, so we've got our regular routines', said Steve Blake. 'It was a good day, and it was good to finally make it official', he added.
'I feel more loved than I've ever', said seventeen year old Miranda, just adopted on Wednesday. I asked her how awesome is that? 'Awesome!', she said smiling away.
Miranda's adoption day, like many others, was wonderful, and it was also the beginning of her family reunion.
"I'm actually really happy that I reunited with her because I would always talk to about her to my old parents," she said. And so it was this week that Miranda was reunited with her big sister Vicky, Tim and Steve's first adopted daughter.
"Wednesday was like any other day, pretty fun, having my sister around for the first time in ten years," Vicky said. "It was life changing. We're a lot more closer, and probably nicer than most siblings."
Tim and Steve opened their home to Vicky two and a half years ago, and so when the call came, it was an instant 'yes' to welcome another daughter, and sister, into the home.
"I just said, yes, bring her, and she was placed with us on October 26," said Tim.
"When we heard that she needed a home, and was back in the foster system, it just didn't seem right that she'd be placed in some random home. It felt right that she be with her sister, and with us," Steve said.
"The day that I came home and she was here I hugged her," said Vicky. "We must have hugged for a good fifteen minutes."
Dad Tim was beyond moved by that moment. "They cried. They cried and they held on to each other, and that really touches my heart," he said.
And as you might imagine this now completed 'Forever Family' is feeling overjoyed.
"We have lots of loved, so, you know, bring 'em in," said Tim. "Let's go. Let's do this. We knew our lives were gonna change. We would do it all over again in one heartbeat. We have no regrets. None whatsoever."
And big sister Vicky can echo all those thoughts, too, in her own sisterly way.
"I know that we're gonna be together now," she said. "I know I don't have to worry about figuring out if she's okay because I was not able to talk to her before, and now that she's here I can know everything. I can know that she's okay."
"They take really good care of me, and I know they actually love me," said Miranda.
Tim added some final thoughts that everyone should be open to hear.
"There are so many teenagers in the system. They need all the love, too, just like the small children. We get the chance to help and reshape (lives), and do something to make a difference. That's what this was all about," he said.