By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer

Some Osceola County families are a little fuller this Thanksgiving after 17 children were adopted Nov. 19 on National Adoption Day.

Family Services of Metro Orlando held adoption ceremonies in Osceola and Orange counties, where more than 30 children age 1 to 15 found permanent homes.

“It’s almost like Christmas a month and a half early when we give these children their forever family,” John Cooper, regional administrator for the Department of Children and Families, said.

While some children are adopted by grandparents or other relatives, such as Emily Lamb, 4, who was adopted by her grandmother Mary Lamb, of Poinciana, 40 percent of adoptions are completed by foster parents caring for a child long term, according to Bart Mawoussi, director of communications for FSMO.

Garrett and Carie Thompson, of St. Cloud, fall into this category.

Plagued by infertility for years, the Thompsons started taking classes last summer to adopt a child. While in class, they learned about the need for foster parents and decided to become certified. The couple graduated from their program in January and received Jedidiah, now 20 months, in March.

“We opened our hearts to fostering,” Carie Thompson said. “We really feel he was always meant to be ours, we just didn’t know it, but God did.”

Jedidiah, a friendly, curious boy who loves the children’s show “Yo Gabba Gabba” and playing ball with his dad, officially became Carie and Garrett’s first child Friday; they also foster a little girl.

“As many kids as we can possibly take into our home, we will” Garrett said.

Jedidiah’s teacher at a St. Cloud day care, Monica Druckenmiller, and her husband, Rick, adopted their grandson Jeremiah, 12, at the same ceremony Friday.

“It’s one in a million. It’s so wonderful we all got to adopt on the same day,” Monica said. “This is just, for us, a long time coming.”

“I’ve always wanted to be with my grandparents,” Jeremiah added.

“Osceola County is a grassroots kind of community; it’s a close-knit county. The people are proud to take care of

their own,” Mawoussi said. “Orange County is larger and it’s harder to get (the residents) to step up.”

Osceola County has 75 foster homes with 170 beds but needs 500-600 beds for foster children due to the rate of child abuse and neglect in the area. The national average is two foster homes for every 1,000 family households, Mawoussi said, and Osceola is consistent with that number.

“We want to keep them close to their families, in their school district, to make it less disruptive for them,” Mawoussi said. “There are simply more children in need of safe homes in our area than nearly anywhere else in the country.”

Seventy-five percent of the children in foster care with FSMO are over the age of 9 and, according to Mawoussi, after age 9, children are more likely to never be adopted and stay in foster care for the remainder of their childhood.

The children who “age out” of the foster care system — fostering stops at age 18 — are more likely to be incarcerated and be unemployed or less employable. Only 2 percent of youth who age out of foster care graduate from college with a degree.

“These children are going to avoid that fate and they’re the lucky ones,” Mawoussi said of the 17 children adopted Friday. “It costs nothing to adopt a foster child. You don’t have to be wealthy, married or young.”