Chris Barrington is a 30 year-old man from Gatesville, Texas who just had his first every birthday party.

“He deserves a good life,” said Michell Girard, who is Chris’ caretaker. “He’s had a hard life.”

Chris, who Girard said has the functioning of a 6 year-old, was found two months ago walking down Highway 84 alone by the Gatesville Sheriff’s Department. At the time, he had been wandering around Gatesville for two days.

Chris had no immediate family besides his father, who had late stage leukemia. The only name that Chris could remember was the name of his junior high teacher, Michell. She taught Chris for four years in Gatesville, but she had not seen him in years. Despite this, she was willing to take Chris in.

“I said, ‘what happens if I don’t take him? Will he get in a group home?’ They said no he’ll he’d go in to an institution,” explained Michell. “I said not on my watch he’s not.”

Chris’ dad passed away on August 1, and Michell is applying for guardianship of him. She wants to make sure Chris has every opportunity to do the things he hadn’t been able to.

“He’s never had a birthday present, a birthday party, he’s never had Christmas, Thanksgiving, nothing,” she said. “So this year is going to be full of firsts.”

She teamed up with JMB Fishing out of Waco to not only give Chris his first birthday party, but also his first boat ride and fishing trip.

“You know there are so many things that kids want to do,” said Jimmy Bennett, owner of JMB Fishing. “They want to go to Disney. I have one that wants to go to Hawaii on a shark fishing trip. Chris is happy to come out on Lake Waco and ride around on a boat. That’s all he wants to do.”

Find out more about this in the video below.