PORT ANGELES — Three new families were created Thursday during a tearful, joyous National Adoption Day ceremony at the Clallam County Courthouse.
Adoption advocates, adoptive parents and a young adoptee spoke at the ceremony, which was attended by about 50 guests and family members.
Two of the new families have blood ties, as grandparents adopted grandsons, and a third new family adopted a boy who was left in a designated safe location under the Newborn Safety Act.
Each volunteered to be part of the public National Adoption Day ceremony, which included a “jury” of stuffed bears and was presided over by Superior Court Commissioner Brent Basden.
A fourth adoption, which was private, also was planned Thursday, according to Sherri Jones, state Department of Social and Health Services adoption specialist for Clallam and Jefferson counties.
“The bears have rendered a verdict. All adoptions should be granted,” Basden said as the three families stood before him in the courtroom.
Basden congratulated the families, then excused them to take part in a joyous post-adoption celebration including photos, cake and treats.
At the ceremony, Jerry and Dana Thompson became the legal parents of Jerry Thompson’s biological grandson, Christian “Micah” Thompson, 18 months.
The Sequim couple also have a daughter, Sitka Thompson, 3, who attended the adoption ceremony for her new brother.
“We thought that our family was complete,” Dana Thompson said of her husband, his children and their daughter.
Then Micah joined the family, she said, adding that he was a blessing.
Evelyn Crane of Sequim adopted her biological grandson, Mikael Hatch, who will soon be 4 years old.
Crane is the only mother Mikael, an active boy who was dressed in cowboy boots and a Western hat, has ever known.
“I was the one who picked him up from the hospital in Seattle,” Crane said.
She said she was thankful for Jones’ help in completing the adoption.
Greg and Tina Johnson of Forks adopted Drew Johnson, a 9-month-old.
“We’ve had him since he was a day old” as foster parents, Greg Johnson said.
The Johnsons had a previous foster child who was returned to his family, and the couple knew they wanted to eventually adopt a child, he said.
When they were called to pick up a child who had been left at a hospital under the Newborn Safety Act, they hoped this would be the child who would be theirs.
“The best part of today is that he is ours. You don’t realize how much this means,” Johnson said.
The Newborn Safety Act allows infants to be left at hospitals, staffed fire stations or federally designated rural health clinics without criminal or civil liability.
Raven Gelder, 17, of Port Angeles spoke at the ceremony to share her own story of adoption as an older teen.
Raven said she was shuffled around the foster system from the time she was an infant until her adoption in September.
During an emotional speech, Raven said her grades suffered and it was difficult to make and keep friends while moving from one foster home to another, sometimes not knowing what home she would be going to after school.
“My life changed for the better. Adoption is so great for everyone,” she said of her recent adoption.
Raven said she is planning to go to college, where she will live in dorms next year, but that this move is different.
“I have somewhere to come home to,” she said.
Angela Temres and Christi Truckenmiller, both of Port Angeles, each adopted two children from a family of four siblings who didn’t want to be separated.
Since then, the families have kept the siblings connected for birthdays, Thanksgiving and sharing photos.
“We were friends before,” Temres said of her relationship with Truckenmiller, but since adopting the children, it has become one large, complicated family that includes out-of-area biological grandparents of their adopted children.
“It can be comical, trying to explain the relationships,” she said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
