Adoption Day is coming up. On Friday, November 20, 2015, the Snohomish County Superior Court, in co-sponsorship with the Snohomish County Clerk’s Office, will join courts across the country in participating in National Adoption Day. For the eleventh consecutive year, our Court will be finalizing numerous adoptions for children; celebrating the joys of this caring option; and encouraging even more people to pursue it.
“We hope to get the message out that many kids linger in foster care and need loving homes,” said Judge David Kurtz, chair of the local Adoption Day Committee. “As one adoptive parent put it last fall: ‘This is the hardest thing we have ever done in our lives, but it is also the most rewarding’.”
Our local celebration is part of a nationwide effort to call attention to the more than 100,000 children waiting to be adopted in the U.S. foster care system. Last year’s event saw more than 30 kids adopted locally, while about 5000 adoptions were finalized around the country.
But there is still much more to be done. Children enter foster care through no fault of their own – often because of abuse, neglect or abandonment from the people who should have nurtured and protected them. They will be separated from siblings. They will spend at least three birthdays waiting for their forever families. The longer that children are in foster care the more they are at risk of lingering in the system and growing up without ever being adopted. In fact, each year more than 22,000 children turn 18 without having families to call their own.
The community is strongly encouraged to take part on November 20th. Our event will occur in Snohomish County Superior Court from 9:00 a.m. through 12:00, and probably into the early afternoon. The adoptions will take place in Courtroom C-201 and Courtroom 6 on the second floor of the Courthouse. All the adoptions this day will be open to the public.
In addition, the public is warmly invited to a short program and celebration at 10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. in the Jury Assembly Room on the first floor of the Courthouse. Annemarie Russell, an accomplished singer and adoptive parent herself, will be the guest speaker. There will be refreshments for all, and fun and games for the children and the families.
If you have any questions, please contact Jaime Peniche at 425-388-7875 or jaime.peniche@snoco.org or Stephen Ritchie at 425-388-7922 or stephen.ritchie@snoco.org.