More than 60 children were adopted Friday at the Miami Children’s Museum, part of a National Adoption Day program to highlight the more than 100,000 children nationally in foster care.
Registration began at 8 a.m. and a welcome program at 9 a.m. Parents were then invited into the courtrooms set up inside the museum, 980 MacArthur Causeway, where Miami-Dade County Juvenile Court judges presided over the 65 adoptions.
“There are many children who are looking for loving homes, and by highlighting this event today and bringing all these kids together and these families together, we are showing the community the beauty of welcoming these children into their homes,” said Raimundo Ruga, board chair of Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe, which sponsored the event, along with The Children’s Trust, the Florida Department of Children and Families and the museum.
There are more than 3,000 children in the child welfare system in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties — of those, 200 are available for adoption at any given time.
Jasmin Martinez, 42, and her husband Johel Arias, 46, were playing with their kids at the museum’s firefighter section. After four years of trying to adopt, they finally adopted three children: two girls and one boy.
“These events create many opportunities for these kids to be able to accomplish their dreams,” said Arias.
