Melanie Colson wants to summarize her son’s journey for people, but it’s hard.

“I reflect on it from time to time,” she said. “I don’t know that I have words for it.”

Melanie and her husband, Steve, adopted Junior Colson in 2012, bringing him from a Haiti orphanage in the wake of a deadly earthquake to Middle Tennessee.

Colson developed into a four-star high school football prospect at Ravenwood. Now he's a 6-foot-3, 247-pound Michigan linebacker, who will make his 15th start this season for Jim Harbaugh when the Wolverines (14-0) plays Washington (14-0) in Monday’s College Football Playoff national championship game at NRG Stadium in Houston.

As a junior, he has a team-high 89 tackles for Michigan, which leads the NCAA in total defense and is trying to win its first national title since 1997.

“I’m just so proud of him and the choices he’s made,” Melanie said. “You can’t be a typical high school kid, going to dances or proms, when you want to play at the next level. He was working out or studying film, and if he wasn’t doing that he was doing homework. He has reached every goal he set for himself.”

Junior Colson's journey from Haiti orphanage to Michigan football

Colson was born in Haiti. When his birth father died, his will stipulated that Colson be sent to an orphanage in hopes of being adopted by a good family. Melanie and her oldest daughter, Amanda, met Colson during a church mission trip to Port-au-Prince after the earthquake. Melanie said she saw a twinkle in his eye. The Colsons adopted him after another family chose not to.

Colson was 247Sports’ No. 8-ranked linebacker in the country as a high school senior in 2020. Two of his Ravenwood teammates, cornerback Myles Pollard and linebacker Trevor Andrews, will suit up for Michigan on Monday as well.

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Colson wrangled extra tickets for his family from Michigan teammates who didn’t use their allotment. The Colsons have nine seats for their family plus a friend. They’ll sit with Andrews’ family during the game. Melanie served on Ravenwood’s football board with Trish and Nelson Andrews.

Everyone in the Ravenwood family is excited.

“I’m getting goosebumps on my arms just thinking about (the game),” said Matt Daniels, who coached Colson at Ravenwood. “Very few get a chance to do that, and hopefully this isn’t the end of his story.”

Junior Colson could enter 2024 NFL Draft after CFP

It probably won’t be. Daniels has already heard from half a dozen NFL teams or agents vetting Colson ahead of this year’s NFL Draft. It’s unclear yet whether Colson will declare after the season.

He sacrificed a lot to become an every-down linebacker at Michigan. Colson rehabilitated himself after offseason foot surgery and has played with a cast on each hand for much of the second half of the season because of injuries. Those are some of the reasons Colson became Michigan’s third player to win the Lott IMPACT trophy, which factors on-field performance and off-field character.

MORE: Father's dying wish made him an orphan. Now he's Michigan football's best linebacker recruit

He recorded a team-high 10 tackles in Michigan’s 27-20 overtime win against Alabama in the Rose Bowl semifinal. Even former Ravenwood defensive coordinator Reggie Grimes, who played for Alabama, said he smiled afterward.

The Colsons are smiling, too.

“It’s about who he's becoming as an individual,” Steve Colson said. “Watching him grow in this way, it has been pretty amazing.”

Reach sports writer Tyler Palmateer at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform, formerly Twitter, @tpalmateer83.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Michigan's Junior Colson went from Haiti orphanage to Nashville to CFP