43
Annual Adoption Day celebrates two families’ willingness to open their homes and hearts
YOUNGSTOWN
Two families celebrated the addition of new members during the fifth annual Adoption Day ceremony at the Mahoning County Probate Court.
In front of an audience of supporters gathered Thursday in the courthouse rotunda, Probate Court Judge Robert Rusu finalized the adoptions of three boys to two families.
Joseph Allen Brooks, 6, and Jordan Michael Brooks, 5, were adopted by Ron and Robin Brooks, who have been caring for the boys since they were infants.
“We’ve had them since they were babies,” Ron Brooks said. “We knew the first day we started fostering them that we were going to adopt them.”
The Brooks’ aren’t strangers to the adoption process. They adopted their first child in 2013 and plan to adopt one more child they are fostering as soon as they’ve completed the adoption process.
During the second hearing, Syncere Tykwan Allen McGee-Taltoan, 15, was adopted by his foster parents, Milton Taltoan and Dawn McGee-Taltoan.
The Taltoans also had previously adopted children. They had been fostering Syncere since his early childhood and knew him as an infant.
“It’s been a long time coming,” McGee-Taltoan said.
Syncere McGee-Taltoan is a freshman at Campbell Memorial High School, where he plays basketball and runs track.
“It’s wonderful to have everyone come out to see you be adopted,” he said. “It just feels good knowing I’m here to stay now. But really I’ve known them since I was a little baby, so they’ve always been like family.”
Judge Rusu said the annual event was meant to show the public a part of the adoption process that normally happens behind closed doors.
“It brings the process out into the light,” he said. “And for the families, I think it gives them a chance to share the openness of their hearts and their homes with the rest of the community.”
After the adoptions, workers for the Mahoning County Children Services Board were recognized with plaques for their work.
“The caseworkers are really the unsung heroes of this process. They have to go into the homes and file the reports. They’re the ones that have to remove children from unhealthy situations, which can be traumatizing for the children. It’s easy for them to get burned out,” Judge Rusu said. “They don’t always get to see this joyous part of the process.”