Eight families walked out of the Pasco County courthouse as something new this week: forever families. Thirteen children had their adoptions finalized during the county's 16th annual Adoption Day, a celebration with cartoon characters and tears of joy.
The event was organized by the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida and carried the theme Falling Into Forever, according to Pasco News. Along with the official proceedings, the day featured appearances by the Rough Riders and activities for kids, giving families a festive backdrop for a legal milestone that often follows years of uncertainty.
Behind the scenes, Pasco County Clerk & Comptroller Chief Operations Officer Kim Thompson and fellow clerk employees helped process the paperwork and documentation needed to finalize each adoption, per the same report. For families navigating the foster system, that stack of paperwork accompanied the adoption process.
A Tampa Foster Mom's First Adoption
Among those celebrating was a Tampa woman who has welcomed more than 50 children into her home over the years but had never completed an adoption of her own until now, according to Pasco News. She shared her journey toward that first adoption, describing years spent providing children with stability, guidance and belonging before finally making it official.
A similar story has played out in Pasco County before. As reported by Tampa Bay 28, Denise Robinson adopted three children she had fostered for four years — a boy named Mariano and two girls, Zoey and Nevaeh — during a Pasco County courthouse celebration. Robinson estimates she has opened her home to at least 100 foster children over the past 20 years, the station reported.
The Scale of Florida's Foster System
Stories like these play out against a much larger backdrop. Florida has about 20,000 children in its foster care system at any given time, Tampa Bay 28 reported, while ABC Action News noted that more than 113,000 children are in the foster system nationwide. Pasco County's Adoption Day events offer a small but meaningful dent in those numbers each year.
Family Support Services serves as the lead nonprofit organization for foster care and adoption in Pasco and Pinellas counties and is led by President and CEO Jenn Petion, according to Pasco News. Elsewhere in the region, Youth and Family Advocates said it helped 156 children find permanent homes over the past year, Tampa Bay 28 reported, with the organization's president, Susan Eby, noting that the group works to reunite children with their birth parents whenever possible.
A Tradition Years in the Making
Adoption Day has become something of a tradition in Pasco County. ABC Action News, covering an earlier celebration, described it as the 13th consecutive year the county had marked the occasion, and reported on one adoption 17 years in the making — that of Darby McKinley, who had been caring for a girl named Dezz and officially adopted her at age 17 during the event, according to ABC Action News. That 2023 celebration was held at the historic courthouse on Meridian Avenue in Dade City; the 2026 event was held at the courthouse in New Port Richey.
A 2024 announcement from the Administrative Office of the Court for the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Florida said 17 children were adopted into 12 families during that year's 14th annual Adoption Day, held Nov. 22, 2024. This year's 16th annual event, with its eight families and 13 children, marked the beginning of a new chapter for every family who walked through the courthouse doors — proof that even as the scale of the foster system remains daunting, individual stories of permanence keep adding up one adoption at a time.
