{"id":19330,"date":"2016-11-21T11:58:43","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T17:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/?p=19330"},"modified":"2016-11-21T11:58:43","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T17:58:43","slug":"children-join-their-forever-families-at-baylor-law-schools-adoption-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2016\/11\/children-join-their-forever-families-at-baylor-law-schools-adoption-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Children join their forever families at Baylor Law School’s Adoption Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Baylor<\/p>\n

Typically, the atmosphere around Baylor’s Umphrey Law Center — home to\u00a0Baylor Law School<\/a>\u00a0— has more in common with the halls of justice than the halls of an elementary school. But Friday was an exception, as the sharp wood panels were covered in bright colored balloons and streamers, and students and professors walked the halls dressed as\u00a0cartoon characters.<\/p>\n

No, it wasn’t\u00a0a\u00a0birthday party for the dean. For the 41 children whose adoptions were finalized, it was a much, much bigger celebration.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0\u201cFinding Dory\u201d-themed event was part of the McLennan County Adoption Day Celebration<\/a>\u00a0hosted by Baylor since 2008.\u00a0In a series of emotional ceremonies, foster children and their soon-to-be parents stood in front of a judge and raised their right hands as\u00a0they\u00a0were sworn into their new families. After all the legal statements — mainly, the children affirming their desire to join this\u00a0family and the parents promising to provide a loving home — the judge signed 41 decrees of adoption and other final documents. For the participating families, that\u00a0moment marked the end of months, perhaps years-long processes to\u00a0finally be legally recognized as a family.<\/p>\n

[SEE PHOTOS\u00a0from Adoption Day 2016<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n

Baylor Law School has hosted McLennan County’s adoption ceremony for almost a decade\u00a0now, thanks to\u00a0the initiative of law professor Bridget Fuselier, JD ’98. Fuselier had often handled families\u2019 adoption processes pro bono<\/em> before returning to her alma mater, and she knew how much happiness she could bring a family simply by volunteering some of her time. Soon after joining the faculty at Baylor Law School, she approached the local Department of Family and Protective Services and the Baylor Law Public Interest Legal Society about\u00a0hosting an annual event dedicated to adoption. Nine years later, the number of student volunteers in the program has doubled, and hundreds of children have joined their forever families.<\/p>\n

Sic \u2019em, Baylor Law School!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Typically, the atmosphere around Baylor’s Umphrey Law Center — home to\u00a0Baylor Law School\u00a0— has more in common with the halls of justice than the halls of an elementary school. But Friday was an exception, as the sharp wood panels were covered in bright colored balloons and streamers, and students and professors walked the halls dressed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photo-galleries","category-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}