It takes a big person to fully embrace the role of stepdad: You have to love, teach and support your partner’s kids just as much as their bio-dad would — all while bracing yourself for those shouts of “you’re not my real dad!” come the teen years. (Nope, that doesn’t just happen in the movies.)

Unfortunately, good stepfathers rarely get the praise they deserve. In the Upworthy video above, though, a stepdaughter gives props to her a stepdad, a man who walked into her life when she was a little girl and changed it for the better. Today, she simply calls him “dad.”

“He just stepped up,” she says after reading a sweet letter he wrote her. “He knew I needed a strong father role and he just did it. But at the same time he just wanted to love and treat me as his own.”

Watch the clip for more on the family’s heartwarming story.

Keep in touch! Check out HuffPost Divorce on Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our newsletter here.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.