Watch: 11-year-old boy’s heartwarming reaction to learning his adoption is being finalized

Landon Rice, 11, received an amazing Christmas gift from his step-father on Sunday morning: adoption.

Landon's mother, Janelle Rice, shared video of Landon unwrapping his adoption certificate on Facebook on Christmas Day.

Rice, Landon's biological mother, told Mashable that she began dating her now husband, Daniel, when Landon was only 5 months old.

"[Landon] really wanted to be adopted by Daniel and have his last name changed," Rice told Mashable. "And we felt it was finally time!"

Rice said Landon has frequently expressed a desire to have the same last name as his stepfather.

"At his fifth grade graduation in May, he was called up to the stage to get his 'diploma' and he told his teachers he wanted to go by Landon Rice… that's when we knew we had to begin," she said.

Her video quickly went viral.

"I think we hope that people will learn that love is love - by blood, marriage or connection, and to some people, a small act (such as a step-parent adoption) actually means the entire world," she said.

Rice said that her husband has always treated Landon as his own, and the adoption process was "truly nothing huge to us, just a legality!"

"But it obviously meant the world to Landon," she added.