33rd Annual DC Adoption Day
WASHINGTON, DC -- DC Superior Court and the DC Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) hosted the 33rd Annual DC Adoption Day ceremony on Saturday, November 16, 2019. The ceremony was designed to celebrate the joys of adoption and encourage area residents to consider adopting or fostering a child in the District’s child welfare system. Forty-five children were adopted, creating thirty-seven new families at this year’s ceremony.
“This event is one of the highlights of our year – it’s so wonderful to see so many smiles in our courthouse! This year we had many more children than usual, which was a delight,” said Chief Judge Robert Morin. “We had seven sibling groups being adopted together, as well as five parents we have seen before who came back and adopted a second, third, or in one case, FOURTH child! To see children who might otherwise have been in foster care for a number of years, or possibly aged out of the system when they turn 21 without a family, officially become part of their ‘forever family,’ is heartwarming,” he added.”
“As a family court judge, you see some difficult situations but you also get to perform weddings and finalize adoptions. What is so wonderful about our Adoption Day in Court event is that members of the public get to see the happy endings that can occur for children and teens in foster care,” said Family Court Presiding Judge Peter Krauthamer. “It is quite moving to see each family come forward and watch as their judge signs the adoption decree that officially makes them a family. And what’s great to see is that not only are the kids thrilled, but their parents are at least as excited, as joyful and as proud about having their adoption finalized and officially becoming a family," he added.
Currently just there are over 750 DC children are in foster care. CFSA is currently seeking permanent, loving, adoptive homes for 60 of those children (others are already matched with their pre-adoptive families or there are plans to reunite them with their biological families or a relative who will be guardian). Adoptive parents can be single, married, any race, religion or orientation, so long as they are a loving adult with room in their home.
At the event, representatives from CFSA and Adoptions Together were available to provide information to any attendees considering fostering or adopting a local child.
Those who were not able to attend the event on Saturday can visit the Heart Gallery online at http://www.adoptionstogether.org/events/heart-gallery/ or at the Moultrie Courthouse (500 Indiana Avenue, NW) through the first week of December or call 202/671-LOVE, the CFSA information line for prospective foster and adoptive parents.
# # #