An Adoption 9 Years in the Making

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Jan 10, 2026

"The soul is healed by being with children."

— Fyodor Dostoevsky

An Adoption 9 Years in the Making

When 19-year-old Monyay was adopted by Leah Paskalides, her former caseworker, the courtroom moment collapsed years of longing into a single word: "yes" -- a word she had been told "no" so many times before. The adoption defied convention not just in timing but in its refusal to accept that love has an expiration date when a child ages out of the US foster care system. What began as professional duty transformed over nine years into recognition -- Leah saw herself in this motivated girl who "did not deserve to go through life without a support system of a family," and Monyay, initially resistant, learned to trust the one person who wouldn't let bureaucracy define the limits of devotion. Their story quietly insists that family is less about legal milestones than the patient architecture of showing up, and that sometimes the most radical act is simply refusing to accept that it's too late for someone to be chosen.

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