Angie McGinty shared a picture of her adopted son, Maverick, on Facebook in July 2015. Soon afterwards, however, she was sent a message that would change their lives.

Adoption day remains one of the most special moments in a parent’s life. Angie McGinty can certainly attest to that, having excitedly posted a photograph of her newly adopted son, Maverick, on social media in July 2015. However, she then received a message that changed her family’s lives forever.

Residents of Louisiana, homeschooling mom Angie and her husband, Evan, are the proud biological parents of three young children. In February 2013, though, the pair made a life-changing decision for their family. Yes, after months of contemplation, they decided to adopt their first child.

Initially, the McGintys planned to adopt from Ethiopia, looking at boys up to 36 months old. In January 2015, however, they redirected their focus to China, with the pair eventually making their choice a few weeks later. They came to this decision after reading the file of a boy called Maverick, who was aged two at the time.

Prior to Angie and Evan’s commitment, Maverick had lived in a foster home in China and had developed a heartwarming connection with his foster brother, Joshua. And before long, the inseparable youngsters became best friends. Their friendship seemed destined to come to an abrupt end, however, when the McGintys chose to adopt Maverick, and another family settled on Joshua.

Nonetheless, the adoption process took a lot of time, with the McGintys awaiting the arrival of their approval letter in the summer of 2015. During that period, Angie visited a Facebook group where she shared a picture of Maverick enjoying a slice of cake. Wearing a party hat, the youngster was sat next to his best friend at a table.

You see, Angie had heard about Joshua’s adoption, and she felt compelled to do some digging for Maverick. She therefore posted a message alongside the picture on social media. “Does anyone recognize the cutie on the right?” she wrote. “He is my little guy’s foster brother and is apparently about to be adopted. I would love to connect with his family, so our boys can keep in touch.”

However, not even she could have predicted what happened next. For, the day before Angie’s post, Chris Muller had actually visited the same Facebook group to confirm Joshua’s adoption. Then after that, he just so happened to see the picture of Maverick and his son – and that prompted him to make a quick response.

“That’s our new son, Joshua!” Chris replied in the Facebook comments section. “So great to connect on this page, and the boys can stay in touch.” Relieved, Angie swiftly responded, “This just makes me smile so big! How wonderful to connect!”

After completing Maverick’s adoption, the McGintys finally brought him home to Louisiana in October 2015. They had also maintained a correspondence with Chris’ family, hoping to reunite the boys at some point in the future. However, the two groups needed to overcome a significant geographical hurdle for that to happen.

That’s because Joshua’s new family lived in New York, well over 1,000 miles away from Maverick. This understandably put their long-awaited reunion on hold. As time passed, though, Chris then received some incredible news from his employers that changed everything.

Remarkably, the company for whom Chris worked asked if he and his family could relocate to Louisiana. This would mean that Joshua and Maverick would be together again. So, after accepting the offer, Chris put together a special video confirming the news and sent it to the McGintys.

Knowing just how important this news would be to Maverick, Angie set up a camera in her living room. In the resulting footage, Angie says to Maverick, “Well, the Muller family sent us this video to tell us where they’re moving to. Do you want to see where they’re moving?”

After nodding his head, Maverick looks up at the television as Angie hits play on Chris’ video. Using a variety of different clips from various TV shows, the video announces that Joshua’s family will be heading to Louisiana. Unsurprisingly, the news leaves the youngster stunned.

A short while later, Angie captures Maverick’s infectious smile as he sits on the couch and asks him what he plans to do with Joshua when he arrives. “Play together!” he responds with a grin. “And hug! He’s my friend, [and] he’s my brother.” Despite their excitement, however, the pair would need to wait a little while longer for their reunion.

In fact, it was some two months after accepting the offer that Chris and his family finally made their way to Louisiana. Joshua was of course looking forward to seeing his best friend again. So soon after the Mullers arrived at their new home, Maverick and his family paid them a visit.

The adults captured the moment on camera as Maverick runs out of his car and approaches Joshua, who’s standing outside with Chris. The youngster then slowly walks towards his best friend before sharing an incredibly warm hug years in the making. The pair then go on to enjoy their day together, playing around in the house and the backyard.

Following the boys’ reunion, Chris decided to compile Joshua and Maverick’s story into a YouTube video and upload it to his channel in July 2018. Titled “The heartwarming reunion of two orphans separated on Gotcha Day in China,” the video has since earned close to 90,000 views as well as over 1,500 likes.

Chris’ video has also attracted more than 100 comments, with users hailing the heartwarming ending to Joshua and Maverick’s long journey. “I tried my best not to cry,” wrote user Debbie Cooper. “I just want to hug those sweet little guys. True friendship (LOVE). So happy for them.”

Those sentiments were echoed by fellow user RainWanders, who also looked ahead to the future. “Oh my gosh, this is way too stinkin’ cute!” they wrote. “How amazing that these two will get to hopefully grow up in each other’s lives. I hope both parents learn to love each other as well!”

Back in July 2015, little could Angie have suspected that one simple post would eventually bring together two families and reunite their respective adopted sons. But from China to Louisiana, the power of Joshua and Maverick’s friendship has endured.