Story by Reagan Scott
NEBRASKA CITY (SNR) - On Thursday Jan. 9, the courtroom in the Otoe County Courthouse was so full that people had to stand out in the hallway.
Everyone was there for the adoption of Gage Fedoris, a sixth-grader at Lourdes Central Catholic School in Nebraska City, who had invited his entire class to be there for the special day.
Gage’s adoption day was a culmination of a process that began last February, but he had lived with the Fedorises for years before his adoption. 
“We didn’t need a piece of paper to tell us that he’s ours, but now it’s official,” Joan Fedoris, his adopted mother and technology director at Lourdes Central, said.
When the court date for Gage’s adoption was set last November, he asked Fedoris if his class could be in attendance. She said that, after growing up going to school at Lourdes Central, his classmates have been with him for the entirety of this journey.
“It was really cool for his friends to be able to come,” Fedoris said.
Beth Box, Gage’s classroom teacher, said Gage’s class is just a loving group of kids.
“He is loved by this class and his journey has been all of theirs,” she said.
In fact, Gage is the fourth kid in his class to have been adopted, one of whom is his adopted brother Nick.
“That morning we were all excitement,” Box said. “The class made it such a great celebration. It was just something the whole class knew had to be done. They were thrilled to be a part of it.”
Box said the class has talked before about moms loving their children enough to be willing to see them adopted and said the event was a powerful witness to the Faith. She said she was glad the students in the class got to be part of the celebration.
She said, “Gage is just a very special kid, and he’s a Fedoris.”
Before Gage came into their lives, the Fedorises had twin sons, Andrew and Ben, and adopted their daughter Isabella at birth. They would later adopt her half-brother Nick from Isabella’s biological mom, when he was born.
Gage and his half-sister Madison would come into Fedorises’ care in 2011 when they were removed from their home and needed somewhere safe to stay. Madison, a fourth-grader at the time, was in Fedoris’s class and told the Department of Health and Human Services that her teacher might take them in.
Members of the organization were able to reach Fedoris and asked if she and her husband Andy would be willing to take the siblings into their home. She said they would.
The Fedorises would serve as guardians for Madison until May 2012 when she went to live with her dad, and for Gage until March 2016, when they went back to live with their mother. Gage would come to live with the Fedorises again in July 2017; this time, permanently.
“People tell us, ‘He’s so lucky to have you,’ but we’re lucky to have him,” Fedoris said. “I had plans for my life and obviously God had different ones. He’s been really good to us.”
Cover image on homepage courtesy rachelannephoto.com
