“For the past four years I have stopped next to each one of my sleeping children and prayed that I would never have to say goodbye to them,” said a teary-eye Haro while in the courtroom.
“But now it’s like an enormous weight being lifted off my shoulders. We are not a foster family and we are not a temporary family. Now we are a forever family. My prayers are answered.”
The four newest members of the Haro family were among the nearly two dozen local children formally adopted in court proceedings coinciding with National Adoption Day celebrations.
Her newly expanded family was cheered on by more than a dozen extended family members, friends and supporters as Butler County Common Pleas Probate Judge Randy Rogers playfully prompted the four new Haros – 4-year-old Emmaline, 8-year-old Victor, 9-year-old Amelia and 13-year-old Rosalie – through the judicial process.
Butler County Children’s Services Adoption Coordinator for Children Services Theresa Cooper said 11 families were adopting children Saturday, including several like the Haros adopting multiple children.
BCCS has 125 kids in permanent custody, and 90 to 100 children are available for adoption.
Cooper said “this is a great day for our children and their families.”
“A lot of time and energy goes into this, especially for the foster families and what it takes to get to this day,” she said. “It’s very emotional and they have worked through a lot of emotions to get to this day because they have had the opportunity to raise these kids for a number of months or years.”
“They have been through all the hardships you can imagine with these kids, the tears, the heartache, the laughter and the fun – they get it all and they get it 24/7. But they go through all that to get to today,” she said.
Rogers has presided over the court for a quarter of a century, but he said the special-ness of adoptions never gets old.
“I’ve presided over nearly 3,000 adoptions,” said Rogers, who let each of the four new Haro children strike the judge’s gavel. “The (children services) workers do such a great job and there is so much that goes into these cases. So what we see here is celebration day.”
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