Today was National Adoption Day in the county where I do most of my work. It's a huge celebration, held each year on a Saturday, where everyone volunteers their time to facilitate the adoption of many children who are in the care of Child Protective Services, after the rights of their biological parents have been terminated.
It's a very child friendly environment with everyone wearing National Adoption Day t-shirts, courtrooms decorated with balloons and tons of stuffed animals, both of which all the kids present get to take home at the end of each adoption.
One of my child clients was being adopted today, so in addition to volunteering with decorating and such today, I wanted to watch his adoption. Aaron went with me this morning, and helped all day with things, and then Mike brought Clayton up later in time to see the adoptions.
The kids have somewhat of an understanding of what I do, but in preparation for today, I talked to them a little more about that last night, in particular explaining what adoption is.
Fast forward to this morning. We are sitting in the courtroom, watching the adoptions, and teh following conversation occurs:
Clayton: Will I ever get adopted?
Me: No, baby, you won't ever get adopted
Time passes, a couple more adoptions proceed with Clayton seeing all the kids picking out their stuffed animals to take home.
Clayton: If I ever get adopted, I want to get that bulldog over there.
Me: Baby, you're not ever going to get adopted. You're going to live with Mommy and Daddy forever.
Clayton: What if you get arrested?
I so didn't have an answer for that. But for the record, he was able to pick out a stuffed animal to take home, even without being adopted.
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