A family completed: Permanent homes found for 15 kids during Adoption Day

A family completed: Permanent homes found for 15 kids during Adoption
Day
BY BREANNE GILPATRICK


Sherry White, a 39-year-old single mom, already had two daughters
adopted from the Florida foster care system, but had always wanted a
boy to make her family
complete.

Then White met Preston about two years ago when the 1-month-old boy
came to White's mother through the Miami-Dade foster care system.

On Thursday, White officially became Preston's mom.

She was among more than a dozen parents who adopted 15 children at a
ceremony at the Juvenile Justice Center in Miami to promote the
adoption of foster care children
throughout Miami-Dade County.

The event was organized by Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe County, a
nonprofit corporation that began handling permanent foster care
adoptions like Preston's for the
first time last year.

Normally, the county holds one Adoption Day a year to commemorate
National Adoption Month in November. But Thursday's Adoption Day is
the last in a series of
monthly adoption ceremonies Our Kids began in February, said Fran
Allegra, executive director of Our Kids.

The idea worked. Our Kids has found permanent homes for 300 children
since last January -- bringing the total to 360 over the last 12
months. It is the largest number of
permanent foster care adoptions for any Florida county, Allegra said.

To compare, the state Department of Children and Families, which
handled foster care adoptions before the Miami-Dade system was
privatized, finalized 358 adoptions
during the 2004-05 fiscal year, Allegra said.

For the families at the Juvenile Justice Center Thursday, the formal
ceremony brought an end to a long, paperwork-filled process.

Some parents brought cameras and camcorders to record the moment as
they waited in the lobby for their hearings. For White, it was a
chance to complete the family she
started when she adopted her daughter Chantelle, now 15, and her
daughter Sarah, now 8.

For another family adopting a little boy, it was a chance to reunite
siblings separated by the foster care system.

''I presided over the termination and adoption of the girls and I
hadn't seen them since,'' said Judge Jeri B. Cohen, who finalized
Thursday's adoptions. ``They came in
today with the little boy.''

The process was not without bumps for some of these families.

For the Whites, the appearance of a potential biological father nearly
derailed Preston's adoption until DNA testing came up negative.

Even after biological parental rights are terminated, parents still
worry their children could be taken from them, Cohen explains.

She stresses adoption hearings are completely closed, open only to
those with the permission of the adoptive parents.

By noon Thursday, the Whites had their family, complete with a photo,
donated teddy bears for all three children and a new middle name for
Preston -- Jawan. And before
the adoption was even final, his older sister Sarah had been thinking
about the future.

''I know when he gets older, he's going to get on my nerves,'' she
said, standing outside Judge Cohen's chambers as Preston ran down the
hall. ``That's how boys are.''

Judges, said Cohen, always try to reunite children with their
biological families before searching for adoptive parents. And they
try to find permanent parents when the child
is young.

''Once the child hits 8 years old, it gets harder and harder to get
them adopted,'' Cohen said.

Despite Thursday's celebration, Our Kids officials said about 350
Miami-Dade children still remain available for adoption.

''You're seeing the ending today,'' Allegra said, ``But if you walk
across the hall to another courtroom, you'll see another case
beginning.''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/14936487.htm
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