Montgomery County celebrates National Adoption Day

November is National Adoption Awareness month and Hamilton County Job and Family Services held its largest public mass adoption ceremony, with 17 children joining eight permanent families. Children, families, friends, attorneys, and community stakeholders joined in celebrating as these children were legally joined with their new families.

The inspiration for “Doors to Hope and Healing” came from Jacqueline Ford statewide foster care and adoption recruitment specialist for The Department of Children and Families.

The bill would create an exception to the part of current law that allows agencies and parents to influence who adopts children.

What was once an unsettled childhood is giving her a deeper insight into the work she does every day, she says.

The Redfearn’s say their faith called them to do more. When intensive services fail and a child can no longer remain safe in a parent’s care and an available relative cannot be found, the county will seek custody of the child. “I thought to myself “Whose baby is that?’ and ‘Can they keep it quiet?’ Then I realized ‘Oh, that’s my baby”.

“They’ve had such a hard time and lost so much in their lives, and we just feel like them keeping with their siblings, and we just have such a good relationship with that other family”, Amberley said.

“From the first day I saw him, I knew I wanted to adopt him”, said Mendez, with translation help from Lizette Mateo, a representative of the Division of Child Protection and Permanency and a coordinator for the event.

Their Christian faith is also the backbone of their family, and at each meal, the children give thanks for their blessings. The average child waits four years to be adopted.

Six years ago, they contacted Child Welfare Services and became licensed foster parents, knowing that adoption was a possibility.

“For our teenagers, we need the same kind of opportunity and permanence that our little ones get from their families”, Fusco said.

Riley, who is black, urged anyone considering adoption to go ahead, to make the leap, regardless of the race or age of the children. They fostered brothers Cade and Micah for about a year. For the first time ever in September, more than 50 percent of children entering care during the month were placed into a kinship home.

“The natural mother showed poor insight of what the child needed most and triangulated her children into her marital conflicts with her husband”, said DJ Ow-Chang.

“There is a huge needs for these kids”, Ganessa said, noting the hundreds of local teens who age out of the system annually.