Mom fosters her love for kids

Cherie Celedonia has adopted two newborns; one was left at a hospital.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Cherie Celedonia was grieving.
For 18 months she had cared for a nearly 2-year-old girl in her home as a foster parent. Though the arrangement was not permanent, the attachment between the two was as strong as any mother-daughter relationship.
The girl's birth mother got permission to take the child back after many months of trying to straighten out her life. For Celedonia, the loss felt like a death, she said. The girl was Celedonia's first foster child and came to her right after she got her foster parent license in 2002.
Celedonia says the sadness her family experienced in losing the girl may be the reason Trumbull County Children Services chose her in December 2003 to take the only "Safe Harbor" baby the county has seen.
On Dec. 19, 2003, a woman walked into Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital and left a baby boy with employees there, Celedonia said. Nurses believe the baby was born that day.
About Safe Harbor
Safe Harbor is the name of a federal law approved by Congress in 2001 that made it legal to drop off a baby at a hospital without facing criminal charges. The law was designed to avoid the dumping of unwanted babies in places where they might be injured or die.
A foster-care worker said she called Celedonia to ask her about taking the newborn because she knew howbad Celedonia felt about losing the other child -- and that this baby could turn into a permanent adoption.
"When they called me ... we were real hesitant because we had been really hurt, but then I just kept thinking about that little boy, and it was Christmastime," she said.
She decided to take another chance.
"On Christmas Eve morning, I went over and picked up this beautiful baby boy, and he's been here ever since," the Warren resident said.
The Children Services board introduced Celedonia, the assistant manager at W.D. Packard Music Hall, and William at its meeting last week in conjunction with November being national Adoption Month.
Butler exhibit
One other adoption event planned this month is an art fair to be at the Butler Institute of American Art on Nov. 28, which will feature a photography exhibit showing 35 children who are available for adoption through CSB.
The children in the exhibit are age 1 through 17 and include eight sibling groups. They are 15 blacks, 16 whites and four biracial children, said Phyllis Johnson, CSB's senior superviser for adoption.
William is named after a close friend, and is the fifth child to come into Celedonia's home as a foster child.
Celedonia's third and fourth placements were short-term. Her second placement, which occurred 10 months before William, was a newborn named Olivia.
Olivia was delivered to Celedonia's home in February 2003 after her birth at an area hospital and a few days of treatment. At first, it seemed that Olivia would be with Celedonia just a short time, but that placement became permanent last spring when Celedonia adopted Olivia.
The timing was right for both children to be adopted at the same time, so on March 23 in Judge Thomas A. Swift's Probate Court chambers, the adoption of both children became official.
"It's the best thing I ever did," Celedonia said of becoming a foster parent, and parent to Olivia and William. "It's something I had the skills for. I knew I wanted to parent, and it's really important for the kids."
Her other children
Celedonia's young children are really the third phase in her 27 years as parent, she said. She has a son Carmen, 27, who lives in New York City, and a daughter Victoria, 18, who is serving an internship after her graduation from Warren G. Harding High School last year.
"I was a single parent when my first kids were young," Celedonia said. "I couldn't do the things I wanted to. I missed out on a lot," she said of those busy times.
"When you're young, you can't wait for [your children] to walk and talk. But when you're older, you think it goes by so fast," she said. "I came from a big family and I always wanted more [children.] And this was a way to do it."
Celedonia says she has always asked for young children for foster parenting, but she knows this is not the norm for foster parenting. Most children needing homes are older, and she gives foster parents who take these children her respect for the job they do, she said.
Johnson said the department has 112 homes that are licensed to take foster children. There have been 30 adoptions during the first 10 months of this year, she said.
runyan@vindy.com