Dustin and Page Rogers were deeply moved when they read 11-year-old Maya’s Christmas wish list. The list contained three wishes: an Adidas sweat-suit, a hydro flask, and to be adopted.
Dustin and Page have fostered more than 180 children for five years in their Shelby County home. Foster care changed their lives entirely and taught them the meaning of a real family. “We began fostering after I met several foster children in a childcare center I was working for,” Page said.
They adopted nine children out of the dozens they fostered. They never realized that they were going to adopt one more. But after reading the Christmas wish list of Maya, they decided to adopt one more, that is Maya.
They started fostering Maya in June 2018. She felt great love and warmth from that lovely couple. Maya was greatly impacted when the couple adopted four of their foster children in February 2019. Page said, “She cried through the entire adoption because she longed to have a forever family.”
Maya started her work to make her dream come true. So she included her dream of being adopted in her wish list. She didn’t know that, her wish was shared with Rogers. They immediately started the adoption process and on December 19th, Jefferson County Judge Elizabeth North signed their petition. Maya had been officially adopted by Rogers on that day. Then they planned to share this good news with Maya in a surprising way.
Page took their children to the courthouse and told them that they were going to take a photo with Maya. So the children made a line with Maya. Maya was given a signboard to hold. On the Signboard it was written, “Merry Christmas to me. I’m now an adoptee.” Maya’s new name Presley Louise Rogers was also written on the board.
When Presley was holding the sign with her divine smile, someone suddenly flipped it and asked her to read. When she read it, she was overwhelmed and could not believe that her Christmas dream would come true so soon. Tears rolled down and she could not stop. She told that she was really happy and it was a real surprise to her.
Her new family celebrated their joy with a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese. “Today’s adoption was so special because she finally gets to have that feeling of ‘forever’ and stability,” Page said, “She’ll never have to pack up her belongings and move again. She is home…forever.”
