| No less than 27 children became members of permanent, secure homes Friday in Fort Bend County in honor of National Adoption Day.
Among those attending the ceremony in the county courthouse in Richmond Friday morning were Carl and Trish Jones, who adopted two small children after 10 years of marriage.
“We decided, ‘Let's not start from scratch,' and we knew there were plenty of adoptable children out there,” Carl Jones said.
He said the process of adopting his two children, 4-year-old Paul and 3-year-old Sarah, covered a period of about seven months through the Depelchin's Center. The children, dressed in their best outfits for Friday's ceremonies, are siblings who had been in state custody when they first met their future parents.
A volunteer for Child Advocates of Fort Bend served as their guardian ad litem, and Jones said he and his wife worked with the Depelchin's Center to slowly become familiar with the siblings.
“It's a gradual process,” he said.
Children as old as 16 became members of new families on Friday, said Child Advocates of Fort Bend executive director Susan Moseley.
“We believe all children deserve a safe and permanent home, and there are many children in (Child Protective Services) who need a safe and permanent home,” she said.
In the multi-county Region 6, which includes Fort Bend County, 1,200 children today are in need of permanent homes, said Moseley.
This year's ceremony also included the contributions of the group Fort Bend Lawyers Care, who donated legal services to two of Friday's adopting families.
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