An Arizona police officer and his wife adopted a 4-year-old survivor of child abuse that he comforted while he was on duty.
Kingman Police Department Lt. Brian Zach met little Kaila when he and his partner got a call to go check on her home back in March 2018, he told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.
As he and the girl waited for officers from the Department of Child Services to show up, “We colored, we snacked,” Zach recalled.
“She held my hand and she was just this cute little thing.”
Kaila eventually had to be taken to a hospital to be treated for multiple injuries as a result of physical abuse, the report said.
Zach, who is a father to two other children, went home that night and told his wife Cierra about the encounter.
“He shows up, he’s like, ‘I got to hang out with the cutest little girl. She was so awesome,'” Cierra recalled to Arizona outlet KTVK.
Criminal charges were filed against Kaila’s caretakers and, when child protective services couldn’t find any family members willing to take her in, the couple decided to step in.
“She came with a sippy cup, a bag of clothes that didn’t fit her and that was it,” Zach told “GMA.”
The little angel immediately became part of the family and was enrolled in a local charter school, the couple said.
They first went through the foster process with Kaila, and during that time “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.
“Our goal was to love and care for this little girl for as long as it happened,” Zach said.
On Aug. 18, more than two years after she came into their lives, the Zachs officially completed the adoption process for Kaila.
The girl is a “character” and loves preschool, animals, dancing and playing.
“She is so comical, she is so witty,” Zach said.
When Kaila first came to live with the family, “she didn’t know how to talk,” the cop recalled.
“And now, she loves to talk,” he said. “She’s happy and she’s flourished.”
The officer told families considering adoption not to be daunted by the process.
“It’s well worth it,” he said.