After 4 years of waiting, couple adopts son's brother: "Happiest day"

When Kauê, at age 6, found out he was being adopted alone, a part of his smile faded. He wanted his older brother back. "I was a little sad because I wouldn't be able to stay with my brother," said the boy, now 11. Four years later, the promise was fulfilled: 15-year-old Gabriel, his biological brother, returned to live with his adoptive family .

This is the story of Lela de Vincenzo , a chef and content creator, and her husband, Wilson Faria. After years of unsuccessfully trying to conceive and enduring painful fertility treatments , they decided to embrace a new way of building a family, and little Kauê joined the adoption list. Love came first, but something felt incomplete: Gabriel was missing, the brother Kauê remembered in his dreams but kept secretly close to his heart.

From the desire to be a mother to the doors of adoption

"I spent four years trying to get pregnant, until I finally allowed myself to stop. It was a lot of suffering," Lela recalls. Without knowing exactly what was happening to her body, she faced diagnoses of low ovarian reserve and the emotional toll of hormones. The procedures were expensive, the expectations were high, and the discomfort was frequent. Until, exhausted, she decided: "Enough, I can't do it anymore."

It was at this breaking point that Lela and Wilson started the adoption process in January 2017. The wait, she says, was filled with constant anxiety: "A wait, yes, it's anxiety . I didn't leave the house thinking someone would call me from the courthouse at any moment."

Kauê's arrival: a home under construction

During the pandemic, the opportunity arose: in September 2020, the phone rang. "We have a child, it's your turn in the queue, and we have Kauê. He's six years old and up for adoption." Soon, online meetings began—drawings, origami, games—and then the in-person visit. In December of that year, Kauê moved in permanently with Lela and Wilson.

Still, life with an adopted son came with the weight of separation: Kauê had an older brother. "He always talked about how much he missed him and how he really wanted to understand why they couldn't be adopted together," Lela says. It was in Gabriel's absence that a silent pain hid, a faint, sometimes confusing memory: "He said his brother was white," Lela wondered, as Kauê wasn't sure exactly how he remembered.

Gabriel: years away, waiting and reunion

Gabriel, for his part, lived outside of Kauê's company. "It was very sad... It was a goodbye. It wasn't the goodbye I expected us to have, because we were brothers," says Gabriel. The young man left one shelter and went to another, living in uncertainty about the homes he was offered, whether they were doing well or not.

When Lela and Wilson learned that Gabriel had been returned by another family, they decided to press on: "Let's go after him," they told each other. "Our lawyer contacted the courthouse. I said, 'We want Gabriel for ourselves,'" explains the mother. And then came the formal steps, the documents, and the long-awaited meeting.

The reunion of brothers that warmed thousands of hearts

The day Lela told Kauê that Gabirel was coming to live with them, something changed forever. "It was the happiest day of my life. I'd never seen Kauê like that," recalls the chef. Kauê, who had kept his longing for his brother hidden away, jumped and cried with joy: "Everyone cried, but it was really nice," says the little boy.

Watch the reunion video:

When Gabriel was asked about finding out that Kauê would be his "new" brother, he replied: "I was very happy. I was grateful for this time, for you taking such good care of him." Gabriel, who had spent so much time in shelters, finally understood that his brother and his new parents were waiting for him and would welcome and love him.

Reflections, strength and hope

Today, Lela and Wilson's home pulsates with the two boys' laughter. "My family is wonderful," says Kauê, confident and smiling. And Gabriel: "I think this is all wonderful." Similar feelings that carry within them the weight of years of waiting, goodbyes, and uncertainty.

Lela leaves a message for those on the adoption waiting list or considering adopting : "Adoption isn't charity. It's a way to form a family, it's a path to parenthood [...] I really want parents, couples who want children, to have hope. I want the children who have been returned to have hope. Because there is a light at the end of the tunnel, there is a happy ending."

Their happy ending comes with a name, two brothers reunited, and a home rebuilt. With the certainty that love, when insisted upon, transforms destinies.