National Adoption Day enhances local families
More than a dozen children went to the front of a Monroe County Family Courtroom Friday and signed the paperwork that would officially make them a member of their adoptive family.
During the National Adoption Day ceremony in Monroe County Family Court, eight local families finalized their adoption of children, which ranged anywhere from one child per family to four children.
The purpose of the ceremony was to recognize those families who have adopted this year or in the past and encourage more families to adopt children from the large foster care system. In Monroe County, there are close to 700 children in foster care, according to the New York state Office of Children and Family Services.
Some previously adopted children shared their stories on how being adopted has been the best thing that’s happened to them.
Nine-year-old Lennon Black, who was adopted when he was 6, said he lived with six different families while in the foster care system and he wondered what he was doing wrong because he wasn’t being permanently taken in by a family. When he finally found his family match, he has had the opportunity to do many things.
“I play four sports … it doesn’t get any better than that,” Black said.
Some of the parents in Friday’s ceremony were adopting children for the second and even third time.
Kim Matava has been going to the adoption ceremony every two years for the last eight years, said Family Court Judge Dandrea Ruhlmann. On Friday, Matava finalized the adoption of 10-month-old Derek Joseph Keens.
The LaDeau family from Henrietta officially welcomed two boys — Joe, 17, and Paul, 5 — to their extensive family. The LaDeaus have eight adopted children and three biological children.
