Bride writes sweet vows for 4-year-old stepson

Emily Leehan, Gage Newville, and Joshua Newville.

At Emily Leehan and Joshua Newville's wedding in Ripley, New York, last weekend, the bride declared her love in front of friends and family not only for her husband, but also her new stepson, Gage.

Leehan has known Gage, 4, for two years, and she wrote two sets of vows: one for Newville and one for his son. "I want you to be safe and to try your hardest and to be a good person," she told Gage. "I know that you and I will butt heads, but I hope that with all my heart, that as you become a grown man, you will understand my methods and realize that I have only done what is best for you and that I love you." She went on to add, "I may not have given you the gift of life, but life surely gave me the gift of you."

Her words moved Gage to tears, and he kept going back and forth between Leehan, a senior airman in the Air Force, and Newville, a sergeant in the Marines, giving them tight hugs. Leehan told HuffPost his reaction "meant everything" to her. Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.