"He is the reason I wake up and work hard everyday - everything I do, I do it for Zack."

The Pareja Family:

Parent: Angel
Adopted Children: Zack

Angel Pareja was a self-described work-a-holic. The 40 year-old had started his own successful construction company, was surrounded by many close friends and family members, but he felt something was missing in his life. Angel knew he wanted to share his life-lessons and pass on his legacy to a son and adoption was an enriching solution.

After calling the adoption information hotline, Angel was put in touch with a Miami area community-based care agency and began the orientation process. "I was genuinely surprised at how fast my orientation classes and background check were facilitated," said Angel. "During my MAPP training I began to visit the Adoption Exchange Web site on a regular basis to find the child that would complete my family."

With the paperwork out of the way, Angel was able to focus on his search. Angel and his neighbor, a child counselor, shifted through profiles of hundreds of boys. Each profile was carefully examined to match Angel's interests with the children's from the Web site. Slowly, hundreds of photos turned in to a handful as Angel slimed down his search and began to contact individual caseworkers.

"It was hard at first," said Angel. "As you are searching for this one special child to love and for some reason or another some adoptions just don't turn out." After two months of shifting through profiles and meeting the children from the Web site, Angel found 12 year-old Zack. Zack was miles away from Miami when Angel called his caseworker in Mulberry, Florida. Two weeks before Christmas, Zack and Angel met and Angel was ready to move forward with the adoption.

"It was important to Zack to finish out the school year with his foster family so for six months I would travel to Mulberry every other weekend to visit," said Angel. "I knew Zack's foster parents had previously considered adopting him and I knew Zack had a big decision to make." Angel and Zack became closer with each visit. During Zack's spring break, Angel was able to bring Zack to Miami to meet all his family and friends and he "just was a big hit," Angel proudly remarked.

Before long Zack's school year had come to an end and the time to move the adoption forward had arrived. "On my last visit to Mulberry I asked Zack if he wanted me to adopt him," said Angel. "When he said 'yes,' I didn't even know what to do, I was too happy for words." Zack moved to Miami with Angel for the summer and the adoption was finalized by the end of August. "Zack gave me a sense of purpose," said Angel. "He is the reason I wake up and work hard everyday - everything I do, I do it for Zack."

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