My daughter's best friend (we'll call her Beth) and her younger siblings moved in with us after Beth's mom passed away from COVID 2 years ago. We adopted Beth in March as an adult (still working on adopting the siblings, it's not as easy for minors). Beth had already been adopted before, and she has never had a good father figure in her life, so the word "Dad" does not have positive connotations for her. She has also always called me Mr. (my-first-name) since she was 5. We've had many conversations about it and I told her she can call me whatever she wants, because I know she loves me. I tried to get her to drop the "Mr." once, since she is in her 20's now and it almost broke her brain.

Yesterday, we made a late night run to McDonald's and she was rocking the aux in the car from her phone and was playing some Demi Lovato. All of sudden, she turns it off and says "You're my Dad, I can't play that!" I've been just randomly smiling for the last 2 days because I think about what she said.

I know she will likely never call me "Dad" directly and I'm happy with that. She has even introduced me to her friends and co-workers as her dad, but there was something about her saying it when it was just the two of us that made my heart sing.