San Diego, California (CNN) — A boyhood wish finally came true. But Maurice Griffin had to wait until he was a man for it to happen.

photo – CNN

At age 32, the California man was adopted Friday.

“It was the best day in my life,” Griffin said after the proceeding in San Diego Juvenile Court. “I fought for 10 years and finally the day came.”

Adopting the burly, muscular, Mohawk-sporting man is Lisa Godbold, his one-time foster mother. “I was just overwhelmed with emotion,” Godbold added. With a few pen strokes by Griffin, Godbold and Judge Richard Monroy, the adoption became official.

“This is going to be quite quick,” the judge told mom and son, all seated at a table. “If you blink, you miss it.” Then son hugged mom. Mom cried.

“Congratulations to you both,” the judge declared.

I have to tell you, I could stand to be adopted, adopted by maybe Donald Trump or Warren Buffet.  Then I could ask my new daddy for my allowance and I’d be set.

It sure would make it easier to budget my money if my parents had been loaded.

I’d like to think that if I was the son of one of those rich guys, that I would not be that spoiled rotten kid that had no idea what it was like to earn something.  Although I’m sure it would be nice as a kid to be able to ask for anything and have parents that you knew were financially able to provide it.

My father’s brother, my uncle Bill, was a successful business owner and he told his 18 y/o son that if he came to work for him, do everything he told him and worked hard that he would guarantee him that by 30 he would be a millionaire.  Do you think my cousin went to work for his dad?  …you guessed it, he did not!  Oh, he eventually did when he was in his twenties and his grand schemes didn’t pan out and he needed a job and a place to live.  …even after my uncle died, that cousin didn’t make his millions.

I used to give my dad a hard time and ask him why he wasn’t the rich brother.  He always told me that they couldn’t have both a rich and good-looking kid so he had to settle being the good-looking one.  My dad worked nearly every day of his adult life and never complained all while providing a good life for me and my mother.

…on second thought, I’ll stick with the dad I got.

Well it wasn’t an allowance that Maurice Griffin asked for back in the ‘80’s when he lived with Godbold and her husband, he wanted to be like a “real” son He wanted to be disciplined like the couple’s other sons. He wanted to be spanked, he said.  As you can guess, when that got back to social workers, the preverbal defecation hit the rotating oscillator, evidently you can’t spank foster kids and they took Griffin out of a loving caring home and placed him with new foster parents.

He bounced from one foster home to another, never finding what he lost. “I didn’t let anybody get close to me again,” Griffin said, holding back tears. “I hurt a lot of people. It was a rough road.”

Griffin is an example of triumph in foster care.

It doesn’t really matter if your parents are your “real” parents or your foster parents, if they are rich or poor, what matters is that you have someone in your life that will love you no matter what and who can prepare you for life outside of the safety net of your parents.