Police officer adopts little girl he rescued from abusive household

Life can be really unpredictable, you never really know what fate has in stored for you, sometimes totally surprise you with what can occur.

And this is the case in our story, how a simple night call for checking a residence, changed the life of the officer who answered the call and the little girl he saved.

It was March 2018, and sergeant Brian Zach and his officers were on patrol duty when a call came in to check a residence. What they found there was going to change the life of sergeant Brian forever. That was the residence where a little 4-year-old girl called Kaila was living along with her caretakers who were actively mistreating and abusing her.

Her caretakers were arrested, while Brian spent the whole night trying to comfort the scared child. They spent time coloring and snacking together, exactly as any parents would do with their children.

Brian tried to make Kaila feel as well as possible, after what she had experienced, holding her hand and talking to her. When the detective in charge of the case arrived, they transferred Kaila to the hospital in order to evaluate her physical and mental condition.

Once back at his home, Brian explained to his wife what had happened and as she later said, “He shows up, he’s like, ‘I got to hang out with the cutest little girl. She was so awesome'”.

Although Brian and Cierra were already parents of two other kids, they decided to volunteer and become Kaila’s foster parents as the Child protective services were unable to locate an immediate placement for her.

When little Kaila arrived at their home, she literally had nothing with her, apart from a sippy cup and a bag of clothes too big for her. The poor little thing was scared and physically hurt as she had sustained multiple injuries by her abusive caretakers.

Once part of Brian and Cierra’s family, Kaila quickly started feeling at home and bonding with her foster family. She nearly immediately started calling Cierra “mom” or “mommy”, while it took her a little more time to start calling Brian dad.

“I was ‘guy’ for a week or two and then when she started preschool she learned who dad was,” joked Brian.

The Zach’s fell in love with little Kaila and they were starting to feel insecure and scared at the thought that they might be separated from her. As Brian explained, “We lived each week not knowing if she was going to go back to her biological parents, or how long we were going to keep her”.

They really wanted Kaila to be a permanent addition to their family. Brian said, “our goal was to love and care for this little girl for as long as it happened”. And their wish was answered when on August 13 they were able to officially adopt Kaila, the adoption ceremony was held at Mohave County Superior Court in Lake Havasu City.

Little by little Kaila started to fully immerse in Zach’s household, she started going to preschool regularly and even actively speaking, as at first, she couldn’t because of the neglect and abuse she had met in her abusers’ hands. The girl was now flourishing!

This story hopefully will be an example for other families, hesitating to foster children. Let’s close the story on Cierra’s own words, “I would definitely encourage people to do it because there’re so many kids who need guys even if it’s just for a small amount of time you can make such an impact”.

If you would like to see the whole news report, check out the video below!