Children seal family bonds through adoptions
| Friday, Nov 20 2009 06:48 PM
Last Updated Friday, Nov 20 2009 06:48 PM
Images
Felix Adamo / The Californian Kadence Doverspike, right, holds her new sister Faith tight as the final adoption papers are signed in court. Also joining the family with Faith was a little sister Hope, 4, and brother Coda, 9
Felix Adamo / The Californian The Harris family just grew by three after Barbara Harris, center, adopted Amber, second from left, Anna, fourth from left, and Candice, right, during National Adoption Day at the Juvenile Justice Center. Big brother Shawn is at left.
Felix Adamo / The Californian Proud mom Barbara Harris, second from right, looks on as 12-year-old Amber Harris signs her adoption paperwork. Harris also adopted Anna, 10, left, and Candice, 13, second from left, at the same time.
Little Sonia Garcia wasn’t the least bit impressed by the decorum of the courtroom as her future mother sat listening to judges and political dignitaries give speeches.
Garcia, 2, was just focused on the bouquet of white, green and purple balloons tied to the judge’s bench.
“Globos,” she kept crying as she reached for them and pointed. That’s Spanish for “balloons.”
Nobody seemed to mind.
There wasn’t the usual quiet order at the Juvenile Justice Center on Friday, which was National Adoption Day.
In observance, the courts and the Kern County Department of Human Services scheduled 45 public adoptions in three courtrooms at the east Bakersfield courthouse. Public adoptions involve wards of the court.
Separately, 10 private adoptions took place at a downtown courthouse.
Following each hearing, families were invited to a carnival on the grounds of the Juvenile Justice Center featuring games, face painting, a clown, food and drink.
Among Friday’s speakers was Judge John Brownlee, an adoptee who thanked adoptive parents for opening their homes to children in need before praising his parents.
“I’m the luckiest man on the face of the planet,” he told new parents and their loved ones.
“Forty-seven years ago, the Brownlee family brought me home and raised me as one of their own.
“They treated me no differently than their other children, and encouraged me in education, in athletics. I can never thank them enough, and if your children can have one-tenth of the love and success I’ve gotten from my family, then they will be blessed many times over.”
Mayor Harvey Hall, also adopted, praised his parents, too, and said the timing of National Adoption Day was appropriate.
“It’s like Thanksgiving comes a week early,” he said. “And then after that comes Christmas.”
What better Christmas present could a child hope for, Hall asked, than a permanent, loving family?
Elena Acosta, assistant director of child protective services, took the opportunity to note that the purpose of National Adoption Day (and Adoption Awareness Month, in which it falls) is two-fold. In addition to celebrating children getting new families, the observance is intended to raise awareness of the need for foster parents and the 2,400 Kern County children in state custody who await permanent families, Acosta said.
Shana and Gale Doverspike were among those responding to that need. They have a 13-year-old biological daughter, Kadence, and on Friday also became parents of a 9-year-old boy, Coda, as well as Faith and Hope, two girls ages 6 and 4.
“We just felt like we had such a good family and a good life, and we felt like we should share it,” Shana said. “We both came from a background of needing a good home when we were children, so we wanted to help.”
Kadence said she was excited when she first heard she was getting a trio of new siblings, but some of the joy wore off when two little girls moved into her room.
“That’s when it hit her, I think,” Shana said, chuckling.
Coda, listening in, gleefully bragged that he has his own room, being the only boy.
Kadence proved to be a pushover, though, when she later went before the judge. All through the proceedings, she stroked Faith’s hair and kissed her softly on the head.
Barbara Harris also adopted a sibling group: Candice, 13; Amber, 12; and Anna, 10. Harris said friends and family were positive about the adoption even though she’s 67 years old and single.
Asked why she was starting all over again when she had two grown children raised and out of the house, Harris smiled broadly.
“Because I’m loco. I’m a glutton for punishment,” she said. “But seriously, I’ve always felt like I was a pretty good mom. And I’ve done it alone, before. I was single when I raised my other kids. I’ve been divorced for many years. The girls have lived with me now for, it will be five years in March. I just felt like it was the right thing to do.”
Miriam Baker, a friend and former co-worker who was in court to support Harris, said she has nothing but admiration for Harris.
“I’m really proud of her for taking this on,” she said. “It’s a big responsibility.”
