Everyone was smiling Nov. 18 at Chicago's Daley Center when the Cook County Circuit Court as well as the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services ( DCFS ) hosted its annual Adoption Daypart of the National Adoption Day festivities designed to heighten awareness of kids in foster care and their dreams of a permanent family and home.
Six new families received the official blessing of the court in front of media cameras. The children were wide-eyed at all the attention as they gave testimony before the judges on what kind of things they liked to study in school, Legos, what they loved most about their new moms and dads cooking and what could use some improvement.
They were then showered with Beanie Babies, backpacks and lollipops while all the grown-ups got was a piece of paper.
For new dads Joe Grissom and Roger Farquharson from Uptown, it was a piece of paper stamped with a seal of approval that had taken four years to earn but worth every moment.
Grissom and Farquharson met at the Chicago Pride Pride and became foster parents before officially adopting Asia and Keil, who were told by the judge that they "won the lotto" with their fathers.
"It's so amazing to be parents," Grissom said. "I know a lot of our friends would love to as well and they should. Go for it!"
They planned on celebrating with a brunch after the holidays.
The latest U.S. Census figures cited by Equality Illinois note that there are more than "34,000 same-sex couples in long-term relationships living across the state, and 21 percent of these couples are raising children."
For more information on adopting a child through DCFS, visit Illinois.gov/dcfs/lovinghomes/adoption/Pages/default.aspx.