Adopted Daughter Makes Birthday Wish To Stay With Her Family & People Are Criticizing Her Mom's Response
The little girl needed reassurance.
@fosteredwithlovee / TikTok For her birthday, a young girl made a heartwarming wish to her mother over her lit birthday candles.
However, people are not too impressed with the mother’s response after her little girl excitedly shared the wish with her.
The adopted little girl wished to stay with her current family forever.
In a TikTok video viewed over 2 million times, Amanda Graham films her five-year-old adopted daughter, Casynn, celebrating her birthday.
The mother encourages her little girl to make a wish over her lit birthday candles.
After blowing them out, Casynn asks her mom if she wants to know what she wished for.
“I wished for to stay with this family forever,” she replies.
According to Graham, this is not the first time her daughter has made this particular wish.
“Our adopted foster daughter continues to use her birthday wish each year for her own reassurance,” she wrote in the text overlay of the video.
However, people were shocked by the mother’s unreassuring response.
Upon hearing Casynn’s wish, Graham simply replies, “Aw, you wish to stay with this family forever? I love you.”
The girl is silent for a few moments before asking to open her birthday gifts.
TikTok users were quick to point out that Graham failed to reassure her daughter that she would in fact be staying with her family forever.
“She probably keeps wishing for it bc no reassurance was given that she doesn’t need to,” one user commented. “I was waiting to hear it…I’m certain she is too.”
“Why not reassure her that that wish ALREADY came true, so she can make another!?” another user suggested.
“Does she know she's yours forever? It doesn't feel like it from this,” another user shared.
“I can’t imagine being that age and having to worry or wish for something like that,” another user wrote.
The mother defended herself in a follow-up video, claiming that her daughter knows that she will be a part of their family forever.
“Can I ask you a question?” she says to the little girl.
She asks her what the term “adoption” means, to which Casynn replies, “to stay with this family forever.”
Graham reminds her daughter that while she is not officially adopted yet, the family intends on keeping her forever one way or another.
“Do mommy and daddy tell you all the time that you’re staying with our family?” she asks.
Casynn answers with an enthusiastic “yes!”
Graham added in the comments section that she and her daughter talk about adoption regularly, and she understands that she isn’t leaving.
The mother revealed the long journey that entailed getting Casynn to stay with their family.
She and her husband began fostering the little girl when she was just three weeks old.
Her extended biological family wrote a letter to the foster parents requesting that they adopt Casynn.
However, when she was 18 months old, one of her biological relatives changed their mind and attempted to obtain custody of her.
After years of going in and out of court, the couple finally signed papers to legally adopt Casynn in December 2019.
Although the adoption is not official yet, families have no labels and the girl will always be a member of the Grahams.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.