NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Friday was National Adoption Day, a day dedicated to encouraging child adoption and honoring the people who do adopt.
It is also the one day a year the press is allowed into the courtroom to see adoptions take place.
In a courtroom on Whalley Avenue in New Haven, 2-year-old Kenyatta could tell the day was all about her. It’s pretty easy. Her face is larger than life on a blanket. Her whole family was there, wearing her picture on their shirts.
Family is also the reason for this day. For her whole young life, Kenyatta has been in the care of Doris Brown, her foster mother.
“You have loved her and you have nurtured her this entire time, not knowing for how long she would remain in your family, or if she would remain in your family,” Judge Lynn Dawson said to Brown. “I want you to know, that uncertainty ends today.”
That is because Friday, Brown officially adopted Kenyatta. She has fostered lots of kids in the past 20 years, but this is her first chance to raise a baby from birth. She can’t get pregnant, so this is something she has literally been dreaming about.
“I believe it was written in time past for the future, so this moment has been awesome preparing for today,” Brown said.
She was one of 40 Connecticut families becoming bigger and better on National Adoption Day. Although it was the day to celebrate adoptions, adoptions go on all year long, and they are always looking for parents to foster and adopt children of all ages and all needs.
“There’s a feeling that you get to want to help and to change the trajectory of a child’s life,” Commissioner Jodi Hill-Lilly of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families said. “There’s nothing like it. There is nothing more fulfilling than to know that you’ve made a difference in the life of a kid.”
Kenyatta’s life has already changed. Doris Brown is the only mom she’s ever known.
“It is in the best interest, absolutely the best interest of Kenyatta for the court to approve this adoption,” said Dawson, making it official.
Brown sees it as a calling.
“If I’m able to help just one child to change a generation, then I believe this was my assignment,” Brown said.
She’s has a lot of help with that assignment, too. Kenyatta can tell. She can just look for her picture on all those shirts.
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