'Am I adopting you?'
Heartwarming moment girl surprises stepdad with papers allowing him to legally adopt her
Gabriella Guardado, 22, placed adoption papers inside a gift bag and presented them to her stepdad, David Lynde, for his birthday
THIS is the heartwarming moment a young woman left her stepfather in tears after asking him to legally adopt her as part of a birthday surprise.
Gabriella Guardado, 22, placed adoption papers and a pen inside a gift bag and presented them to her stepdad, David Lynde, earlier this month for his birthday.
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In the video, David opens the bag and pulls out the papers while surrounded by family in their Florida home.
He skims through the papers and Gabriella asks him: "Do you know what that is?"
He responds: "Am I adopting you?" and starts to cry with happiness.
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Gabriella says: "I want you to, you don't have to, you can say no, but I want you to adopt me.
"You've been my dad and I know legal papers don't change anything."
David goes to embrace Gabriella and says: "Gabby you have no idea how much that means to me.
"You have no idea."
Gabriella will officially take David's last name on Friday when the paperwork is finalised at the courthouse, the Daily Mail Online reports.
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Gabriella wanted David to adopt her when she was younger but her biological father would not sign it off.
Once she turned 18, she thought she no longer could be adopted so she stopped trying.
But after learning from her boyfriend that she could do an adult adoption, the registered nurse started looking into it.
"So I did research and found out that I could do that without the consent of my biological dad", she said.
She said David's reaction reduced everyone in the room to tears.
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Gabriella praised her stepdad for his parenting and taking on the role of father.
He said: "He helped me grow into the young woman that I am and helped me through all the hard times of getting through nursing school and becoming a young adult."
Gabriella's mother, Lori Ann, said David came into Gabriella's life when she was 10 years old in 2004.
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Lori Ann, 44, was previously married to the father of Gabriella and three of her siblings, but they divorced in 2001.
Since then, he was not involved in the children's lives.
This month, as part of a belated birthday gift for David, whose birthday was on July 31, Gabriella came up with the idea to present him with the papers.
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Lori Ann said: "She came to me and said this is what I want to do, his birthday is coming up and I want him to adopt me.
"When she told me, of course I cried.
"She said I want his name."
To see his reaction just made parenting worth it
Lori Ann explained that every Sunday she holds a family dinner at their house and that Gabriella wanted to present the gift during dinner on August 21.
She said: "To see his reaction just made parenting worth it."
Lori Ann has four children with her ex-husband, Gabriella, a 20-year-old daughter and 19-year-old twin boys, and she also has a 10-year-old son with David.
Her three other children also want to be adopted by David but will do so in their own time.
The video of his birthday surprise was posted to YouTube and gained more than 46,000 views.