austinbar.org NOVEMBER 2016 | VOLUME 25, NUMBER 9
Austin Adoption Day Celebrates Its 15th Anniversary
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ovember is National Adoption Month, designed to raise awareness of the more than 100,000 children in foster care waiting for permanent and loving families. As of August 2016, there were 16,537 children in foster care in Texas, with 6,322 children waiting to be adopted. Of those, 195 of them reside in Travis County. On November 3, 2016, 53 children will be adopted into 31 families at the 15th Annual Austin Adoption Day. Finding their forever families has been a long process for these children, all of whom have been in foster care because of abuse and neglect. The Austin Bar Foundation and its partner organizations—CASA of Travis County, Partnerships for Children, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the Travis County Children’s Protective Services Board, the Travis County Juvenile Probation Department, and the Travis County Office of Child Representation—are proud to sponsor Austin Adoption Day. The event brings together attorneys, judges, case workers, CASA volunteers, and many others in the community to celebrate the creation of new families. Austin attorney Denise Hyde has chaired the Adoption Day Committee since its inception in 2001. The Austin Bar Foundation established the Denise Hyde Scholarship Fund in 2012 to help with school and living expenses for older
children being adopted or aging out of the foster care system. Hyde is a passionate advocate for fostering and adoption and was instrumental in establishing the Central Texas Adoption Day in 2011 for children in neighboring counties. The Austin Bar Adoption Day Committee is made up of more than 35 attorneys and judges who give their time and expertise to make the day a special one for the children and families involved. This year, one of those attorneys has more than a passing interest in fostering and adoption. Sheri Tolliver and her husband, Craig, both attorneys, were fostering a little girl seven years ago when they got a call from a caseworker who was trying to find a home for three sisters under the age of six. The caseworker made the right call. With the help of Denise Hyde as their attorney, the Tollivers brought the sisters home just six weeks later. Now ages nine, 10, and 13, the girls have had a profound impact on the Tolliver’s lives. Craig and Sheri met while attending Vanderbilt University Law School, where their eyes were first opened to the foster care system when they met several foster kids and parents while participating in a foster care clinic. After moving to Austin, Sheri volunteered at the Austin Children’s Shelter where she learned of the shortage of foster families in Austin. The time seemed right time for the couple to move forward and become foster parents. After adopting her three girls, Sheri
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Craig and Sheri Tolliver and their daughters; Judge Orlinda Naranjo and special guests at the 2015 Austin Adoption Day; Stuffed animals decorate the courtrooms at the Gardner Betts Juvenile Justice Center.
spent the early years at home caring for them. She returned to work parttime two years ago, handling mostly pro bono family law cases. Now, the opportunity to volunteer for Austin Adoption Day seems like the perfect way to give back. “While we didn’t adopt at Austin Adoption Day, the day we adopted our girls was a very special day in the life of our family,” said Tolliver. “It is something we still mark and celebrate every year as a family. I’m so happy to be a part of that for other families—whatever the journey has been for them. To be able to help them celebrate this day with their children, is so special. There is nothing like it when a new family is created.” While this will be Tolliver’s first time to participate in the Austin Adoption Day, she has heard about the Gardner Betts Juvenile Justice Center being decorated like “The Wizard of Oz,” with its theme “there’s no place like home,” and about the plethora of
stuffed animals decorating each courtroom. Each child is allowed to pick out a favorite stuffed animal to take home to mark the occasion. Tolliver recalled, “When we went to meet our daughters for the first time, we took each of them a stuffed animal. To this day, our daughter, who is now a teenager, takes that stuffed animal with her every time she visits a friend for a sleepover or goes anywhere. Those stuffed animals have a lot of meaning for the children. I am so happy to have the chance to make it a special day for these families.” Attorneys wishing to volunteer for next year’s Adoption Day should sign up for the Adoption Day Committee at austinbar.org. To find out more about fostering or adoption, contact Partnerships for LAWYER Children, AUSTIN partnershipsforchildren.org. AL AL