Newly adopted 2-year-old spots her mom during a school concert and her reaction is priceless

Editor's note: This article was originally published on September 30, 2022. It has since been updated.

A video of a small girl recognizing her mother during a school concert has gone viral. The 2-year-old, Amaris Traversy, is shown with her preschool classmates on a stage in the TikTok video. Amid all the children dressed in their paper crowns singing a song led by their teacher, Amaris was unable to concentrate on anything except her mother, Genevieve Traversy, who was in the audience for a Thanksgiving celebration. Traversy filmed the clip in 2019 but posted it on TikTok in 2022. She wrote in the caption that she caught this moment on camera shortly after "adopting my baby girl," who turned 5 years old in 2022. 

She can be seen mouthing "my mommy" in the video. Traversy explained in the caption: "Instead of singing, she kept pointing at me saying 'My Mommy'." She told TODAY, "I felt like that was the moment she realized I wasn't going anywhere. I'm going to cry just thinking about it." Amaris was a newborn when she was placed in foster care. She was put with Traversy, her husband, Shawn, and their four children when she was 18 months old. When she first arrived at their house, she was anxious and extremely terrified of people. She would "flinch" if anybody tried to be in close proximity. Her mother said, "She’d never drank out of a cup before and she had a lot of fears — like she was terrified of taking baths and she didn't like to be touched. She liked to bite."

She added, "We had to pour a lot, a lot of love into her. There was quite a bit of crying — not just from her but from all of us. It was hard." Traversy is proud of how her daughter has grown. "She's a big kid now — she's starting to read." She added, "If you saw her now, you wouldn't know she was the same little girl that came to us." She is funny and loves gymnastics.

Traversy, like Amaris, was raised in foster care. She went through 15 homes until opting out of the system at the age of 18. She became pregnant at the age of 16, but despite all the hardships, she never gave up on life. She earned three degrees, including one in psychology, and now works as a foster care recruiter and life coach. She is also working on a self-help book.

Traversy believes that, by sharing her experience, she will encourage others to foster and adopt. She said, "Trauma does not define a child. Underneath that trauma is a beautiful person just waiting to flourish. No child should be considered a lost cause."

Viewers on TikTok were moved by this beautiful video. A user commented, "Made me cry she's admiring you and happy you're there! I'm going through this process and some days are so difficult, but I got to remember we got." Another said, "She is so happy to have a mom she wants everyone to know." Another user commented, "She is so happy to have a mom she wants everyone to know," to which Traversy replied, "She has been growing and thriving beautifully."