November is National Adoption Month. In celebration, Child Welfare Services will be hosting its annual Adoption Day at the Santa Maria Juvenile Court on Wednesday November 28, where 26 children will be adopted by 12 families. The festivities will include food, activities for the children, gifts, complimentary family portraits for the new forever families, and of course smiles, laughs and tears of joy. These twelve relative and non-relative care providers will agree to provide the children the safe, stable, loving and permanent homes they so need and deserve.
Imagine being a foster parent, going from zero children in your home to as many as six children overnight...and, if all efforts to reunify the children with their parents are unsuccessful, making a commitment to raising the children as your own. Imagine being a child who has suffered from abuse or neglect, who has had to adjust to a new home or perhaps several new homes and families, and finally knows where home and family will always be.
Adoption provides the highest level of permanence for former foster children, offering love, nurturing and guidance, not only through childhood but beyond, through all of the triumphs and challenges of adulthood.
In recent years, 80 to 105 foster children have been adopted through foster care annually in Santa Barbara County. This year it is anticipated that 90 to 100 adoptions will be finalized. These adoptions represent the culmination of efforts by many, including Child Welfare Workers at every stage of intervention, care providers, service providers, and our partner agencies.
