The Name on the Jersey Before the Draft

In 2017, a video went viral of a couple adopting a seven-year-old boy named Michael from foster care in Grand Rapids, Michigan. What caught the internet's attention wasn't the courtroom moment itself — it was what Michael's new father revealed afterward. He pulled out a box and handed it to the boy. Inside was a custom baseball jersey with their family name stitched across the back and the number seven — one for every year they had been waiting for him.

"We started the paperwork before we ever met you," his father told him. "You were ours before you knew it."

Michael stared at the jersey, then at his new dad. "You wanted me the whole time?"

"The whole time."