Jodi Kacz loves nothing more than teaching her students.
The 45-year-old teaches English at Manuel Pena Jr. School in Phoenix, Arizona (in the ol’ US of A), and the children in her class mean the world to her.
Yet due to a heart condition, she’s unable to have children of her own.
“I used to always tell my husband, ‘There’s a kid at school and if I could adopt, I would adopt a kid just like him’,” Jodi told KGW8 News.
That “kid at school” was a fourth-grader, Orlando, who began reading intervention classes with Jodi in 2014.
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“He’s got a lot of charisma. He’s got a lot of drive. And he doesn’t let anybody tell him he can’t do something,” Jodi said.
Over the next two years, the pair formed a truly heartwarming bond — not unlike Matilda and Miss Honey in Roald Dahl’s Matilda.
For Jodi, Orlando was the child she could never have. Until she found out that, actually… she could.
According to KGW8 News, a friend of Orlando’s pulled the teacher aside one lunch day. He told her Orlando was a foster child.
The boy spent his childhood in a Mexican orphanage, before being brought to Phoenix to live with a foster family.
It was there, in Ms. Kacz's reading intervention class, that the pair formed a beautiful bond.
“I had no idea this beautiful child I fell in love with was up for adoption... Eventually I said, 'This is meant to be. This connection I feel is from above'," she said.
On Saturday November 19th 2016 — which happened to be National Adoption Day (TOO PERFECT. WE CAN'T EVEN.) — Jodi and her husband Scott finalised the paperwork. They officially adopted Orlando.
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Top Comments
Thank you for your beautiful article. My son and I enjoyed reading it about our story. Jodi and Orlando
Congratulations guys, nice to hear about something so lovely when we hear so many terrible stories - especially awful stories about children being neglected and abused. Got to love a story with a happy ending!
Thank you for writing this beautiful story about us. My son loves reading the articles. :) Jodi Kacz