PORT ANGELES — The wait is finally over for Debby Walter and her 4-year-old daughter.
After a two-year process, Walter on Thursday became the adoptive mother of Berit Anala Knight-Porter-Walter.
“I can quit stressing all the time,” Walter said.
Berit was legally adopted in a public ceremony in Clallam County Superior Court as part of National Adoption Day.
The Port Angeles girl was one of about 4,500 foster children who were adopted in courts and community halls around the nation.
“I believe in family, and I think that children should stay within their family if they can,” Walter said after the ceremony.
“[Berit] has been in my home since she was born, and the thought of somebody else taking her was just … that wasn’t going to happen.”
Clallam County Superior Court Commissioner Brent Basden presided over the adoption, which was witnessed by more than a dozen adoption advocates.
Two other adoptions occurred in closed court earlier in the week.
In Washington state, National Adoption Day participation has grown from an original six counties in 2005 to 20 counties today.
Basden opened his court to National Adoption Day five years ago to celebrate adoptions and to recognize social workers and others who are committed to finding permanent homes for children.
“The phrase ‘foster parent’ is maybe in some ways kind of redundant,” Basden said at the ceremony.
“What is a parent? Someone who fosters, or nurtures, or helps a child to grow.
“Really, there’s not a whole lot of change in status, in some ways, when a foster parent becomes an adoptive parent because parenting is fostering,” Basden added.
“But it does mean all the difference in the world to a child to provide that security and that permanency.”
During the ceremony, Walter affirmed that the adoption was in Berit’s best interest, that she understood it was a permanent commitment and that she was able to fulfill the commitment financially and emotionally.
Adoption attorney Steve Gish said the commitment would involve “cellphones, boyfriends, driver’s licenses, all that stuff.”
“We’ll come to those hurdles, hopefully not for a long time,” Walter said.
“But yes, I do [affirm].”
Basden then signed a decree of adoption for Walter.
“She’s all yours,” he said.
A smiling Berit meandered around the courtroom playing with balloons and Basden’s gavel during the 45-minute ceremony.
“We just went through a torturous election season, and there were a lot of words and most of them were bad,” Gish told the audience.
“This is exactly the opposite of that. There’s no words. This is action. This is performance. This is stepping up to the plate and just doing.
“And I’m so honored that I get to be a part of this whole process,” Gish added.
“And you guys are on the ground, where it’s at, and I really appreciate it.”
Linda Cortani, recruiter liaison for Fostering Together, which works to find and support foster families in Western Washington, said more than 100 foster homes are in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
About 60 percent of the foster parents on the North Olympic Peninsula are related to their foster children, Cortani added.
“Please consider becoming foster parent or a respite care provider to help our foster parents with support,” Cortani told the audience.
Cortani and her husband, Clallam County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Cortani, adopted four foster children after raising three biological children.
“Being a foster parent is probably one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever done, but the most rewarding,” Bill Cortani said.
“This is real work. It’s different raising children you didn’t conceive, you didn’t start out with.”
The rewards of being a foster parent are in the “little things” like when a child grabs your hands to cross a street, Bill Cortani said.
“The light at that end of the tunnel got father away when we chose to do this,” he added.
“But the light got a lot brighter, so it’s well worth the trip. To any and all who do this, the positives will be different for everybody. But you’re doing a good thing.”
Cathy Marshall, a Port Angeles attorney and assistant attorney general, said 400 cities throughout the county hold National Adoption Day adoptions.
“There are more than 100,000 children waiting for permanent loving families in the country today who are in foster care,” Marshall said.
“The average wait for a child in foster care to be adopted is three years. More than 23,000 children age out of foster care each year with no family and no permanent home.”
Last year, 4,000 children were adopted by their “forever families” during National Adoption Day, said Marshall, who adopted a son, Scott, more than 30 years ago.
“It wasn’t ever, ever that there was something different about him because he was adopted,” Marshall said.
“He was my son. And he has just been the best child.”
Scott, now 33, is a geology professor and father of three.
“It’s a worthwhile thing to take a child into your home and to share the love and what you have to offer that child,” Marshall said.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Erik Rohrer read a proclamation from Gov. Jay Inslee recognizing National Adoption Day in Washington.
“It’s your efforts and people’s efforts in our community that are raising these children not in isolation but as part of our community,” Rohrer told the adoption advocates.
For information on becoming a foster parent or adoptive parent, go to www.fosteringtogether.org.
Linda Cortani, Fostering Together recruiter liaison for Clallam and Jefferson counties, can be reached at 360-640-0869 or Linda-Cortani@olivecrest.org.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
Berit Anala Knight-Porter-Walter, 4, delights in sitting on the lap of her adoptive mother, Debby Walter of Port Angeles, after being formally declared mother and daughter at the Clallam County Courthouse in Port Angeles during Thursday’s National Adoption Day. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
