From The Trussville Tribune staff reports
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Michigan boy showed up to his adoption hearing on Thursday with several of his closest supporters: his entire kindergarten class.
The children from Wealthy Elementary School in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, took to the courtroom in Kent County in support of 5-year-old Michael Clark Jr. as he attended an adoption hearing with his foster parents. In spirited fashion, the 20 or so children waved red hearts in a show of support for their classmate. When the time came to bang the gavel, the children cheered as Michael smiled with his new parents.
“We had them pick what color heart they wanted to bring and put them on rulers because, ‘love rules,'” Michael’s teacher, Kerry McKee, told media outlets. “I’m corny like that. But I am riding this love wave with such passion because I feel so honored and blessed that anyone, even you, is interested in what we did in little old Grand Rapids Michigan.”
Michael, dressed to impress, had been fostered by his new parents, David Eaton and Andrea Melvin, for close to a year before he was formally welcomed into the family on Thursday.
The kindergartner had been in and out of the foster care system throughout his life. According to media reports, Michael has boundless energy, loves sports and loves to talk to everyone.
“There is not a dry eye in Judge Patricia Gardner’s courtroom,” Kent County posted on its Facebook page.
The event was the court’s 23rd annual Adoption Day, which happens the month after National Adoption Day. On Thursday, 37 children were ushered into new homes.
“We have a theme at our school, ‘Put a Little Love in Your Heart,’ you know that song by Annie Lennox?” McKee told Buzzfeed. “I always tell my students that you rise when you lift others, and that’s what we did with Michael.”