Adoptive parents deserve recognition

By Michael A. Wolff

On a recent Saturday morning in November, I participated in a remarkable series of judicial proceedings. The proceedings were adoptions -- the special settings on "Adoption Saturday" in the St. Louis County family court division -- to celebrate November as National Adoption Month.

New families are formed with legal bonds to cement the familial bond between adoptive parents and children -- bonds that these parents and children have been working on for some time.

What is remarkable about adoptions -- unlike most other court proceedings where there are winners and losers -- is that everyone leaves the courthouse happy.

Judges from the Supreme Court, from the Court of Appeals, and from other divisions of the circuit court volunteered to conduct the proceedings on Adoption Saturday. There were 36 children being adopted into their new families. And everyone was a winner.

The number 36 represents only a small portion of adoptions that are done week in and week out in counties throughout the state -- about 3,400 per year.

These proceedings reflect well the work of courts and our system of law, as the means by which we as a society provide structure where needed for family relationships and provide for the protection of vulnerable children.

But even more significantly, adoptions highlight the generosity of spirit of the adopting families. Every one of these children has a story. His or her story is contained in a rather thick set of court filings that detail the child's early life and experiences in the birth family, and the reason why the child is in need of a permanent placement in the new home. Some come from foster care, some from families where parents have abandoned them, and some from foreign countries.

Many of the adopting parents are blood relatives of the child, including some grandparents, where the parent has died or has been found unable to care for his or her offspring.

In the proceedings leading up to the adoptions, courts take care to protect the interests not only of the child but also of the natural or biological parents. But the protection of the parents' rights only goes so far where court finds that their discharge of the parenting duties has been grossly deficient. These are some of the most difficult decisions a court will make, but our courts take this responsibility seriously.

Every child in our society deserves to grow up in a family that is loving, supportive, and attending to his or her needs. Our court system emphasizes the importance of permanency planning for children -- no one wants to see children shifted from home to home for years on end. Those who provide services to these children, including judges and court personnel, understand the importance of making such decisions promptly.

By the time the adoption is completed, the child has been in the home of the prospective adoptive parents for a considerable period of time and has been evaluated by professionals who report to the court about the best interests of the child. In each adoption proceeding, the court appoints an attorney as guardian ad litem for the child; a guardian ad litem's duty is to see to it that the child's interests are protected.

In the three adoption proceedings that I was privileged to conduct, the guardian ad litem, as well as the social worker, testified and recommended that the adoption be completed.

When an adoption proceeding is completed, legally the child and the adoptive parents have a parent-child relationship that is in every respect the same as that of biological child to the biological parent.

Adoption is a happy and hopeful event. In their own ways, each of these families is inspiring for the love and generosity they show for these vulnerable children for whom they have chosen to care. All children deserve to have a sense of belonging, and adoptive parents deserve recognition for making this lifelong commitment to these children.

These parents, and their children, serve as inspirations to those of us who work in the courts system as judges, clerks, bailiffs, court reporters and others. They make us grateful for the small role that we play in creating and fostering their relationships.

Michael A. Wolff is the chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court.