For any parent, dropping a child off at college can be an emotional day. For one family from Itasca, the start of college for their oldest child takes those emotions to a whole new level.

At the University of North Texas, move-in day brought a mixed bag of feelings.

"It's a little difficult," said parent Christen Rogers. "I'm getting emotional just thinking about it."

"I'm nervous, but that's normal," said incoming freshman Shayna Russo. "Overall, I'm really excited to start this experience."

For Russo -- a communications major -- the road to UNT had its twists and turns.

"It's been a long and difficult path," she said. "But I'm really blessed with how it turned out."

For Russo, the path started in Massachusetts, where she was born. When she was eight, she lost her mom to cancer. The next year her father moved the family to Texas, and remarried. That's when she said the trouble started.

"I was treated like a dog," Russo said, recounting a childhood of emotional and physical abuse followed by years in group homes and foster care.

"I was like, I didn't even care about my life at that point," she said. "What was I going to do? Everyone's making these decisions for me. There's no hope."

That changed, she said, when she met the Rogers family. Andrew and Christen Rogers worked with a group home, Presbyterian Children's Home and Services. They cared for foster children, including Shayna. A bond was formed.

"We began to realize there was something missing," Christen Rogers said. "The days she wasn't with us, we didn't like that feeling at all."

And even when she was there, there was also something missing.

"I felt like I was part of this family," Russo said. "But I felt like there was a boundary that I had."

In April, the Rogers family made a big decision. They asked Shayna, 19, if she’d like to be adopted.

"For us, adoption -- it didn't matter what her age was," Andrew Rogers said. "It brought our family to completeness that hadn't been there before."

The adoption was finalized last month and the boundaries are now gone.

College is a time for new beginnings. Russo will begin her college career knowing she now has a family cheering her on.

"I can finally shut the door to my past," she said. "And just keep moving forward."