14-year-old in foster care 'didn't like' her caseworker—then became her daughter 5 years later
First impressions might not be right all the time. A caseworker and a teen girl assigned to her would agree to that after the turn of events in their lives. The teen, Monyay, had been assigned to a case worker, Leah Paskalides, as a 13-year-old and was told that Leah would help her find a home. However, Monyay wasn't exactly fond of her case worker at first. But during her time in foster care, the teen ended up forming a close bond with Leah and was glad for a chance to call her mom, per Tampa Bay 28.
Monyay met Leah while she spent time in state care as a teen. "She told me what she was going to be doing and helping me out with my case and I didn't like her; she'll tell you that," Monyay remarked. But as they spent time together, they had formed a really close bond by the time Monyay turned 19. Leah could see that the teen had many aspirations and would need her support for that. The case worker was glad to provide her with all the help she could. "She was very motivated and had aspirations for a future and so I knew she just needed support," Leah remarked. As the years passed, Monyay was not sure if she would ever become a part of any family.
By the senior year of high school, Monyay found it really hard to do everything on her own. She was also really close to the point where she would age out of the system. "My senior year is when I went through one of those, 'I don't want to do it anymore, I'm done'....and she said, 'I got you,'" the then 19-year-old said about her case worker. "She always said, 'I wish you could adopt me, wish you could adopt me' and I couldn't because of the job and then I was watching a documentary where the person had been adopted as an adult and I had never really heard of it," Leah revealed. She couldn't adopt Monyay because of a conflict of interest while she was still working as her caseworker.
So finally, when Monyay was out of the system as an 18-year-old, Leah took steps to get ready and adopt Monyay as an adult. They finally filled out all the paperwork and got approval from the judge via a Zoom meeting. Both Leah and Monyay were in tears as they heard the decision and gave each other a big hug. "We're so happy; we both wanted this for so long," Leah expressed. Monyay was really thankful after getting something she had wanted all her life, per Good Morning America. People congratulated the duo in the comments section of the video.
@Landingplane1quitchchannel wrote, "This is sad. Her whole life spent in foster care, bouncing house to house and she still can keep a smile on her face and graduate. Thank god she had a good case worker who actually cared." @LordSPink commented, "As someone who was kicked around 25+ different foster homes and then dumped on the street at 16, the need for an unconditional love like this is stronger than most people will ever know. I'm really happy she found hers!" @kaybourgeois3774 remarked, "When I'm old enough and financially stable, I want to adopt a bunch of teenagers before they age out. God bless these women."