That camping trip your family still talks about? Science says it’s worth more than any toy under the tree.
A Texas teacher is going viral after sharing her adoption story with the world.
Kaci Spampinato, a 49-year-old educator and mom of three, took to TikTok on Dec. 17 to take part in a viral social media trend that ends with people noting that “it’s very important that you say yes.”
“When you think you’re done having kids, you’ll get a call from a former student asking if you’ll come get her baby before CPS takes him,” she wrote in a text overlay alongside a video of her son.
“It’s very important you take that call and say YES!” she added.
She continued in the caption: “He completed our family. He’s the bookend to our boys.”
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In an interview with People, published Jan. 3, Spampinato dove deeper into how her adoption story came to be and how she changed the trajectory of a little boy’s life for the better.
And it all started in 2009 when she met a student that changed everything.
The student eventually moved away, but they reconnected five years later when Spampinato learned that her former student had given birth to a child.
Hoping to help, Spampinato reached out to the student and dropped off some baby supplies.
Just a few days later, the student contacted Spampinato looking for a place to stay due to “some unsafe things going on” at her apartment. Spampinato ended up taking her and the baby in for two weeks.
At one point during her stay, the student asked her former teacher if she was interested in adopting the baby boy.
Spampinato, who suffered a miscarriage not long before that, saw it as a sign.
While the baby’s father showed restraint, Spampinato received a call from her student a few weeks later asking if she was still interested in adoption.
“She said, ‘CPS is here. You either come get him, or they’re gonna take him and put him in the system,’” she recalled her student telling her.
The baby stayed with Spampinato and her family during the CPS investigation until solidifying the adoption on Feb. 25, 2015.
The Texas teacher describes her son as an ‘answered prayer
Now 11 years later, Spampinato’s adopted son Kash is thriving.
She frequently reminds him that she’s not his biological mother and even shows her pictures of her former student so he knows where he came from.
After looking at a picture of his biological mom, Kash said, “I wub her,” according to People.
As for what Spampinato says when Kash asks why his biological parents gave him up, she opts for honesty.
"We always just say they absolutely loved you. They loved you more than anyone could ever love you because they knew what was best for you," she told People.
"They knew that if you were with us, you'd be able to fish all the time, and you'd be able to do these things, and you'd have all these great cousins and grandparents,” she added.
Spampinato described Kash as an “answered prayer.”
"The minute I held him, I knew something was different. There was no expectation whatsoever to adopt him at that time because that wasn't even a thought in my mind," she continued.
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In addition to Kash, 11, Spampinato is also the proud mother to a 21-year-old son, Kade, and 14-year-old son, Krew, according to People.
