A video of a little boy’s emotional reaction to learning his adoption had been finalized has gone viral.
Dad Chris Overton shared the video on TikTok, writing, “[A]fter a few years of court the battle is finally over and my son is now undisputably my son.” The video has been seen nearly 850,000 times on TikTok alone; when it was reposted on YouTube, it was viewed tens of thousands more times.
Yahoo! News reported that the family had been trying to finalize the adoption for two years before it was finally made official.
@ovewon #foryou #adoption #stepparentadoption #family ♬ original sound – Ovewon
In the video, the little boy, Jameson, is swimming in the pool, when Overturn jumps in, despite having a broken leg. After playing for a bit in the pool together, Overturn whispers, “I’m your dad now.” Jameson’s jaw immediately drops, before he squealed with joy and wrapped his arms around his dad. Both of them appeared to be emotional, as Overton whispered, “It’s over, buddy.”
Overton posted a follow-up video, captioned, “My best friend in the whole entire world… he’s now officially my son!” In the video, Jameson records, saying, “I love YOU! You’re the best dad in the whole wide world, and you are the best dad. And I will always love you, with all my heart. And I will always love you, for you, forever and ever and ever, for the rest of existence.”
The father-son duo appeared on ABC News with a message for other families going through a similar adoption process.
“Don’t give up,” Overton said. “It was incredibly difficult, incredibly challenging, but when you just follow your heart, you just know the right thing to do.”
He further wrote about the impact their story has had publicly on Facebook. “I can’t tell you how full my heart is watching how many people have had their hearts touched by such a beautiful act of love,” he said. “Here’s my truth: we wanted to quit so many times. The amount of physical pain I endured just to try and pay for this and not go bankrupt was at a level at which I never knew was possible. [A]nd there was nothing I could do. I could either quit and go out on disability and suffer no matter what, or I could fight. And we did just that.”
