A Taylor Swift fan in and out of foster care for nine years burst into tears when news of her adoption was broken to her with a twist tied to the Eras superstar singer. Brielle, 10, first moved in with her adoptive parents Tricia and Justin, from Peoria, Illinois, when she was a year old, and for the past three years, had been asking twice a day: ‘When will I be adopted?’ Brielle had been in a foster home for the first year of her life, before moving in with Tricia and Justin. After two years with the couple, she was returned to her biological parents, only for the family to later decide they could not raise her, so Brielle moved back in with Tricia and Justin once more. Over the years that followed, the couple grew incredibly close to their foster daughter, with their case worker telling them their planned adoption was close to completion. That hope of adoption lasted for around three years, Tricia, 38, said – nine years after Brielle was first taken into their care – and every day, without fail, Brielle would ask for updates. When Tricia was then given the news that Brielle's adoption had been approved, she knew she had to plan a big surprise for her foster daughter, who is a huge fan of Taylor Swift. She started looking online for Taylor Swift-themed adoption surprises, and settled on a t-shirt that read, "In My Adoption Day Era," a nod to Swift's recent Eras Tour. On August 8, Tricia handed Brielle a gift bag who pulled out a note, which explained that she had been in foster care for 3190 days, before asking if she's like to end that streak the following month.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00This little girl waited nine years for this moment.
00:03I'm in my adoption day era.
00:06Brielle was just a baby when she first entered the foster care system
00:10and found a loving home with Tricia and Justin.
00:13But things weren't so simple.
00:14We got Brielle when she was one year old
00:19and she was this little teeny tiny baby.
00:24We were so excited and we had her for about two years
00:29and foster care, the goal is always to return home.
00:32And sometimes that's possible.
00:34Sometimes it's not.
00:35In that case, she was able to return home.
00:38But around two years later,
00:40we got a phone call from her biological mother saying,
00:46there's been some things going on in my life
00:49and I'm hoping you can take her back
00:53and this time it's going to be permanent.
00:55She was five years old when she came back
00:57and she has been here ever since.
01:00So she's almost 11 now and we've been waiting to adopt her.
01:04And Brielle really, really wanted to be adopted too.
01:07She's always asking, you know,
01:09when am I going to be adopted?
01:10When's my adoption day?
01:11We found out a couple months ago that it was finally happening.
01:15So that is when I decided to record and surprise her.
01:19Brielle's a huge Swifty.
01:21So Tricia wanted to plan a surprise she'd remember forever.
01:25All she does is walk around the house seeing Taylor Swift.
01:28It's her favorite person in the world.
01:32And I knew I had to include Taylor somehow.
01:35I didn't know how and when I was looking on at adoption shirts,
01:41I came across this shirt and it said I'm in my adoption day era
01:45and I was like, yeah, that's the one.
01:48I have a present for you.
01:51Okay.
01:54You can open it.
01:55Read the paper first.
01:59Yep.
02:073,190.
02:10Isn't that crazy?
02:25I love you.
02:32I'm crying.
02:35Look what we got you.
02:36It's totally like Taylor Swift era tour, era's tour that you love.
02:43I'm in my adoption day era.
02:47Don't cry.
02:48Are you so excited?
02:50I'm so excited.
02:52I love you.
02:54I love you.
02:55I felt really happy.
02:58And I was so excited to tell my friends that I finally got, that I'm finally getting adopted.
03:06I like that it was very colorful because I like really colorful colors.
03:12I think she'll love it and she'll probably be surprised about it.
03:17I honestly did not expect the reaction that we got to see her
03:22that overcome with emotion and that overwhelmed really showed me.
03:26Oh my goodness.
03:27This meant more to her than I even, I mean, I knew it meant a lot but it meant more than I could even ever imagine.
03:34A month later, the family finalized the adoption and of course Brielle wore her adoption day era t-shirt.
03:42When people think of foster care, they think of all the trauma involved and
03:49and that's true.
03:50There's so much trauma involved but I wanted people to see like how much family really means to children.
03:59Even if it is through foster care and adoption, like having that permanency is something people crave
04:06and when she was finally going to be permanently a part of our family,
04:12I think it's so important to show people how much that means and especially to a kid.