Thirty-one children across Central Florida joined their new families Friday as part of National Adoption Day.
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“Every day, we are turning away referrals for wonderful children because we just don’t have the families to be able to care for them”, said Jan Musser Geier of The Salvation Army’s Children Services.
Others adoptions stories include a 3-year-old boy who received a heart transplant as an infant who was adopted by his foster family, and four siblings ages 5 to 11 adopted by their foster parents. The family celebrated its third and fourth adoption – adding to an already large family.
Hayden has been living as a foster child with Amberley and Joshua for the past 160 days, but the official adoption countdown started about six weeks ago when they were given the official date. More than 6,800 children in the care of the State of Texas are waiting to be adopted.
“Foster care can sometimes unsettle children and families, so when an adoption happens, it means the world for the family and the child”, said Darlene Fusco, the area director of the Child Protection and Permanency Division in Hudson and Bergen counties, who spoke at the ceremony. Only about half of adopted children were placed through authorized agencies, like Linda Joy was through the Children’s Home Society of California. She reminded me so much of my mother, who would go to prisons to visit with inmates and also would visit patients in mental hospitals. “And so I certainly hope that during this adoption month that there’ll be one more family that’ll say Hey, why don’t we pray about this and see if God leads us to go this direction and just see what happens?”.
Gentek-Mayer said. “It is my distinct honor to participate and bring together adoptive parents, the Surrogate’s Court staff, adoption professionals, judges and attorneys to celebrate and honor the families who are finalizing their adoptions”.
“I’ve been mother to a lot of children”, Riley said of the around 30 foster children for which she has cared over the years.
Texas needs adoptive parents for children of all ages. Now there are 1,143 cases in the “Child in Need of Service”, or CHINS, in Allen County. “He called us Mama and Dadda”, she said.
Dennis has had her sister’s child since he was 18 months old.
“I remember being that kid with no parents and feeling isolated and rejected because the natural gravitation was towards adopting infants or toddlers”, Caston told the AFRO. “The children aren’t the reason they’re in foster care”. My son has given me more than I could ever have given him. During this time, birth parents and foster parents both have limited power in determining if they will get to keep the child in question.
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“They come into foster care, and none of its their fault”, she says of foster kids.
