COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – National Adoption Day is coming up this Saturday. While adoptions are typically completed without public fanfare, Branch County Probate Court is one of over 30 courts in Michigan that celebrate the process publicly during the month of November as a way of encouraging people to consider adoption.
An Adoption Day celebration was held this past Tuesday in Probate Judge Kirk Kashian’s courtroom as a Grand Rapids area couple adopted a eight-year-old boy.
During this fiscal year, 1,600 Michigan children were adopted through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services or private agencies.
Among the 11,000 children in Michigan’s foster care system, which aims at reuniting children with their biological families, nearly 200 lack an identified adoptive family.
People can adopt whether they are single or married, and must have adequate financial resources to provide for a family, which doesn’t include being a home owner or being wealthy. Children being fostered can be adopted after parent rights are terminated for abuse or neglect.
About 95 percent of children available for adoption qualify for assistance to help families with some of the costs of expanding their family though adoption. Details are online via the Michigan Adoption Resource Exchange: mare.org.
(Peg McNichol contributed to this report)
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