A kid who suffered from malnutrition was adopted by a single gay dad and turned out to become an Olympic champion.
Jordan Windle, now a U.S. Olympian at Tokyo2020, was not so lucky and successful all his life.
Namely, the boy was born in a Cambodian family, and his biological parents died shortly after his birth.
As a result, he spent the first years of his life in an orphanage, and when he was 2, he was suffering from malnutrition, scabies, and severe infections.
On the other side of the world, one single gay man dreamed of becoming a dad.
Jerry Windle, from Florida, had the same dram all his life, but everyone around him doubted that they would ever see him in the role of a father.
Yet, one day, the lives of both these men changed forever.
Being a single gay man, Mr. Windle faced numerous difficulties in the process of adopting a child in the U.S.
One day, he stumbled upon an article about the life of orphans in Cambodia and he recognized it as a sign.
He immediately contacted the Cambodian officials and soon received life-changing news.
In the summer of 2000, Mr. Windle went to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to meet his future son.
At the time, the little boy struggled with severe health complications and weighed only 16 pounds.
Even though Jerry feared he might not survive, he felt he would give the boy the chance he so badly needed, and he would start living the life he deserved.
When he took the boy to Florida, Jerry did everything in his power to help him regain his strength.
And he was successful in it.
When he was 7, Jordan was already a promising athlete, and his talent for diving caught the attention of Tim O’Brien, the son of a famous diving coach, Ron O’Brien.
The boy then joined a special diving program and started marking his first triumphs.
The victories of the boy were also noticed by Olympic gold medalist and LGBT activist Greg Louganis.
Jordan was even dubbed Little Louganis.
Yet, it took him three Olympic trials until he finally achieved his dream of qualifying for the Games.
At the Tokyo2020 Olympics, he competed for Team USA.
Yet, the diver never forgets his home country, and he even got a tattoo of the Cambodian flag, before also getting one of the five-ringed symbols of the Olympic Games.
In 2011, the father and son co-authored a children’s book called Orphan No More: The True Story of a Boy.
It tells the story of a rooster, who was told by other animals that he would never be able to become a dad without a hen by his side.
Yet, one day, the rooster finds an egg that no one wants. Even though the egg is of a baby duckling, the rooster proves to everyone that he could be an amazing father because “where there is love, there is family.”
Truly heart-melting!
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