"Children ran around clutching toys much too big for their little fists, dodging chairs and tables as families laughed. The sight was unexpected in a courtroom.
“Coming to court is usually not a happy experience,” said Franklin County Probate Judge Robert G. Montgomery.
As seven children waited to be adopted into five families, their exuberance reverberated off the courtroom walls.
A 17-year-old who spent three years in foster care walked into the courtroom as Deshawn Johnson and walked out as John J. Harmon Jr., with new brothers David, 17, and Luke, 13.
“A dad and a son should have the same name,” Deshawn said, so he changed his first name at the same time that the court changed his last.
The official observance of National Adoption Day is Saturday, but yesterday was when five local families adopted children previously in foster care.
For 11 years, November has been recognized as National Adoption Month, said Rita Soronen, president of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. The goal is for 4,000 children to be adopted across the country before or on Saturday.
“Our mission is to help show that adopting from foster care should be something we do,” Soronen said. “Kids just want to have a family, and families just want to have a kid. Adopting foster kids is not scary or foreboding, and we work to bring awareness to that.”
Franklin County Children Services finalized 166 adoptions last year, with a similar number expected in 2011, said Kim Toler, a director at the agency.
Children Services emphasizes the need for adoptive families for older youths such as Deshawn.
Sandra and John Harmon of Lancaster began fostering children in January last year. Deshawn was their third.
“In just a few months, he grew on us,” Mrs. Harmon said. “We were a little nervous at first because of his background.”
Deshawn’s mom kicked him out of the house when he was 8 because he was “old enough to take care of himself,” Mrs. Harmon said. He hooked up with a Columbus gang and often lived on the streets and slept in abandoned houses. He was picked up for robbery at 14 and later put in foster care.
Now a junior at Lancaster High School, Deshawn is doing well in his classes and is on the football, basketball and track teams.
“When you open your heart to these kids, they will repay you,” Mr. Harmon said. “They’ll shine."
The Harmons never expected to adopt, but Deshawn persuaded them.
“You get someone, and it either clicks or it doesn’t. It clicked with him,” Mrs. Harmon said. “ We’d love to save them all, but we can’t.”
In any given year, Children Services will have about 2,000 children in its foster-care system, Toler said. About 10 percent will be adopted.
The Harmons plan to continue taking in foster children and aren’t ruling out additional adoptions.
“These kids are crying out for help,” Mrs. Harmon said. “If you give these kids a chance, they will turn around.”
Alex Stuckey is a fellow in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism Statehouse News Bureau.
