Twin sisters ask their stepmom to officially adopt them in touching Mother’s Day gift
When Pete Ruvolo introduced his 8-year-old twin girls, Julianna and Gabriella, to the woman he was falling in love with back in 2010, he was a ball of nerves.
"That first introduction was just trepidation to me because I mean the girls… they're everything," Ruvolo recalls. "So, if the person that now I fell in love with, if that didn't work, I honestly didn't know what I was going to do because the girls came first."
"We are always his girls," says Julianna. "We always have been. It was just, it was always us. His world revolved around us. Yeah. He always put us first."
Pete's then-girlfriend, Becky, was also anxious about the meeting. "I was so nervous," she says. "I'm like, oh my goodness. These eight-year-old twin girls. I mean, I've seen enough Lifetime movies and sappy movies. Like I knew this could go sour. Like they could be like, don't take my dad away from me or anything."
However, as it turned out, there was nothing to fear. The girls were immediately smitten by Becky.
"We really, we clicked from the start. It was just there was no awkwardness or hesitation," says Gabriella. That first meeting was the beginning of a journey, and the relationship flourished.
Watch the video above to see Becky's reaction to the twins asking her to adopt them!
Eventually, in 2013, Pete and Becky wed. But the marriage wasn't just about them. It was about the couple and the twins becoming a family.
"You know, I did have a, a little speech to them," says Becky. "And we gave them these heart necklaces, and it was just about them feeling included and that this was combining of all of us."
Julianna and Gabriella accepted Becky wholeheartedly, and never doubted she saw them as her own. To them, no mother could have been more proud or supportive.
"For me, like some of my strongest memories with her is through sports," says Julianna. "I went through a few injuries, to say the least, through high school, but like her and my dad just helped me persevere through everything. And she was always by my side, like if I like I run and even if I walk the entire race, start to finish, she'd be there. Like the finish line in tears. Like, I'm so proud of you. Like you did amazing."
"Mom growing up, she was a cheerleader. And in middle school, I was like, I love cheer. I want to do it," adds Gabriella. "And then it became more meaningful to me because I knew she did. And it was something that we shared, and I was like, I can be more like her."
When the girls got older, Becky gave them an incredible gift—she made them big sisters to two little brothers. In 2014, the family welcomed son Carmine, followed by Salvatore in 2018.
"Growing up, we never thought about being big sisters because we never really saw this coming," says Gabriella. "So, when they told us that they were going to have Carmine, it was surreal. It was like just a dream come true. Because not only do we have mom and this beautiful family, but now we're going to have another sibling. And it was just amazing."
Now aged 20, Juliana and Gabriella recently decided it was time to make things official.
"We have always talked about it," says Julianna. "Not the three of us together. It was more a conversation that me and Gabriella had like privately and especially with our dad. So come this year we were talking, and everyone was like, it's Mother's Day. Like what better holiday to celebrate her and to adopt us than on Mother's Day?"
The twins put together a photo book of their memories with Becky throughout the years. On the very last page, they asked her to officially adopt them. She, of course, said yes.
"We've never spoken about it together," says Becky. "Obviously, Pete knows that I would've loved that one day, but I never wanted to put it in their heads. I didn't want it to be something forced. Like mom wants this, so let's do it for her. And the fact that they did it on their own and as adults for themselves, for me, for our family, it's just like the cherry on top. I, I could not be more honored."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Twin sisters give stepmom the sweetest Mother's Day gift ever
