Adoption makes it official but Kalyssa was already a treasured member of the Ward-Hill family

LACONIA — Yesterday, just weeks before the birth of their first child, Ellen Ward-Hill, a teacher at Pleasant Street School and her husband Jeff, became a family of three in courtroom 1 of the Circuit Courthouse with the adoption of 13-year-old Kalyssa before a crowd of friends sporting red T-shirts proclaiming, "We Are Pleasant Street School".

Ward-Hill recalled that in her first year at the school a decade ago, she taught Kalyssa's half brother and soon afterwards found Kalyssa in her first grade class. By the time she taught Kalyssa again in fourth grade she had become aware of the trying circumstances of her family. At the same time, Ward-Hill, like all her colleagues had grown very fond Kalyssa, in whom she sensed a special character with great promise.

"Everybody at the school just loved her," Ward-Hill said.

A year later, when she discovered the fifth-grader was homeless and living with a classmate, she gave her a home.

"It was a leap of faith and Ellen took it," said Anne Barrett, a guidance counselor at the school. In May, 2013 Ward-Hill became Kalyssa's guardian.

"We just wanted to help," Ward-Hill said, explaining that she told Kalyssa's mother "we're willing to help until you get back on your feet." When that did not happen, Ward-Hill chose to adopt Kalyssa. In the meantime, she and Jeff were married last August.

"I was the maid of honor," Kalyssa exclaimed.

"What are you guys doing here?" asked Judge Jim Carroll, gazing over a crowded courtroom festooned with balloons. "Are you scheduled? Should we wait?"

Then turning to Kalyssa, he asked "what are we here for?"

"The party!" she replied.

"We're ready to take her forever," Ward-Hill told the judge.

"You don't know how this recovers my day," Carroll remarked, adding that he asks the clerk to schedule at least one adoption a week. "I've got this internal agenda," he said. "Been there, done that."

Carroll described Ward-Hill as "saintly, saintly" and said "I remember the petition for guardianship as if it were yesterday. It speaks volumes," he continued, "of what a teacher can be to a student." Kalyssa, he said, was "a student for a year and now for a lifetime."

"I treat these things like a wedding," Carroll closed. "That's all I have to say. Love you all. God bless."

With that the crowd swarmed Ward-Hill, her husband and daughter as cameras began flashing.

Carroll offered to help Kalyssa, now a seventh-grade student at Laconia Middle School, make her way through law school, but later she stated boldly "Columbia, then straight to FBI training." She said she was looking forward to soon having a little brother and eying Jeff Hill's grandmother, proudly remarked "I'll still be her only great granddaughter." But, for the moment, she said "I want to party!"

"She makes our lives so much better," said Jeff Hill as he watched Kalyssa, clutching a bouquet of balloons, celebrate.

"She has helped us," added his wife.