“He had outbursts, threw chairs," Linda, now 68, told TODAY. So by the time Cruz Riojas was set to enter the sixth grade, she issued a warning to the school’s principal: “I will quit if I have him in my class.” 
 
 
 
 Courtesy of Linda Hooper 
 
 But then the story, as first reported in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, began to change. "I really had hoped that he'd be put in another person's room, but at that time I was the only one who could really handle the hard discipline problems," she said. 'Total squalor' 
 
 Cruz, now 45, said when he was growing up he did anything to get attention. "If a child touched him, they’d be down on the floor in two seconds.” 
 
 
 
 Cruz, who is only now opening up about his story, lived with his mother, stepfather and five half-siblings, and suffered years of physical abuse at the hands of his stepfather. They now live in San Antonio with their two children, Hannah, 13, and Greyson, 9. As a healthier relationship developed between Cruz and his teacher, the Hoopers' home became a refuge for the troubled student. He began spending more and more time at the Hooper home, and would frequently run the 7.5 miles between his home and theirs when he had a fight with his stepfather. "He never left," Hooper said. “She put everything he owned in a cardboard box, and they huddled behind an 18-wheeler until I came to meet them.” 
 
 Cruz thought he'd only be staying with his teacher's family for an hour, but that hour turned into days, months, and then years. Hooper said her husband, a retired firefighter, never questioned her decision to let Cruz stay, which she admires him for to this day. As Cruz settled into his new life, the Hoopers bought him a new wardrobe and helped him get his first job, an Avalanche-Journal paper route, so he could make his own money and buy things he'd never had. “I saw that she just wouldn’t give up," Cruz said. Hooper said she was on a school trip in Dallas when she got a phone call - her "biggest joy" - shortly before Cruz's 30th birthday. He went on to study at Texas Tech University and later met Anel Montemayor, his future wife. "I just thought it would honor my parents," he said, holding back tears. “We were in a grocery store, and he wanted everyone to know I was his mother, because people would look at us funny. “He never had a man in his life that was worth anything and he respected Gale," Linda said.
– Cruz Riojas came from a troubled home: He was reportedly beaten by his stepfather, lived in a decrepit one-room lean-to with six other family members, and wore the same clothes to school every day, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. He also caused trouble in school and was known as a “holy terror,” says Linda Hooper, a teacher who first encountered Cruz in the early ‘80s, when he was 12 years old. But then an amazing thing happened: He started spending more time with Hooper, who would give him tasks to do around the classroom. He eventually began coming for visits at her home, where she lived with her husband and four daughters, often running the nearly eight miles between their two houses to get away from his stepfather. After an incident with his stepfather in 1983, Cruz’s mother asked if he could stay with the Hoopers for a few days till everything blew over. "He never left" after that, Hooper says. "I had him from then on." He became a part of the Hooper family, taking on a paper route to make money and doing better in school, placing out of special education classes by the time he graduated. More than a decade later, he was still part of the Hooper family—but he wanted to make it official by asking the Hoopers to adopt him right before his 30th birthday. “He said he wanted to honor us, and it was a big honor," Hooper tells Today. "I’ve always known he loved me, but this really showed he loved us.” The adoption went through in 1998, but Cruz "was my son from the day I kept him,” Hooper says. The family is just now telling their story for the first time. (Click for the full article, or read the story of a police officer who found a baby alive at a murder scene—and adopted her 30 years later.)