Adopted Children Join Their Forever Families

Tears in the courtroom usually mean someone is leaving in handcuffs. For the new "forever family" of Austin Averbeck, this wasn't the case.

They cried out of joy and relief as years of adoption paperwork were finalized.

Austin officially got a new forever family on Friday, but he wasn't the only one.

During Pasco County's observance ceremony for National Adoption Day at the West Pasco Government Center, 28 adoptions were finalized. National Adoption Day is Saturday, Nov. 19.

Now a sophomore in high school, Averbeck, 16, found himself in need of a home three years ago. His friend’s parents took him in without hesitation and began the process of adopting him.

“It’s a relief that this is finally over,” Averbeck said. “I am thankful they took me into their home.”

His adoptive father, Stephen Hardy, said it started with just trying to help a kid out and growing attached to him. The family lives together in Holiday.

“He’s my son now,” Hardy said. “It was the right thing to do.”

Before the adoptions were finalized in various courtrooms on the second floor of the judicial center, Chief Judge J. Thomas McGrady led a ceremony discussing the importance of Adoption Day and introducing the guest speaker, 16-year-old Devon Rismay.

This was the first time such a ceremony has been celebrated in Pasco County since 2008, said Ron Stuart, public information officer for the Sixth Judicial Circuit.

Moving into new facilities and staff shortages caused by budget cuts were contributing factors in canceling the event in Pascio in previous years, Stuart said. Pinellas County held its National Adoption Day Nov. 4 for the eighth consecutive year.

“It’s a celebration for the children being adopted and for the adoptive parents,” McGrady said. “We have a lot more children that are available for adoption, so an event like this can also draw attention to that need.”

McGrady said there are 1,800 children up for adoption in the Tampa Bay area, 200 of them available immediately. Some may age out of the system at 18 without family to help them continue the transition into adulthood. But not the ones here today.

“Congratulations,” McGrady said. “Today is your new birthday.”

Rismay celebrated his "new birthday" in March. Removed from his parents at 9 months old, Rismay has “lived in 20 different homes, gone to several schools and had too many caseworkers to count, he said.

He wore a suit and a smile and was surrounded by friends and people who love him. In 10 years of foster care, all he had was two trash bags full of belongings, his guitar and an overwhelming feeling of loneliness, he said.

“Three families told me they’d be my forever family,” Rismay said. “Three families put me back in foster care.”

In 2010, Rismay attended an adoption social event where he met the woman who, on March 14, 2011, would become his adoptive mother.

“She kept asking me questions and wouldn’t leave me alone,” Rismay said. “After that, she became my mentor, came to St. Pete to do activities with me and take me to dinner.”

Now, Rismay said, he’s proud to say Natalie is his mom.

“If my mom had not stuck by me, I would have aged out of foster care and become another statistic,” Rismay said. “I will now be spending my second Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family.”

Rismay is now a junior at Boca Ciega High School in St. Petersburg, a member of the ROTC unit and Drill Team and a self-taught guitar player and music student of Dave Shepard’s Rock-n-Blues Academy.

Eckerd Community Alternatives, the child welfare lead agency in Pinellas and Pasco counties, works with government agencies and nonprofits to ensure the well-being of children in foster homes and to help find them forever families.

One of the organizations Eckerd works with, The Progress Energy Heart Gallery of Pinellas & Pasco, is a grassroots community initiative modeled off successful Heart Galleries throughout the United States.

Bay area photographers take portraits of children up for adoption that captures their true personalities and best moments. Those portraits become part of traveling exhibits to put a face on the population of invisible children needing permanent families.

Two of the kids adopted at that courthouse Friday, Eric, 17, and Aisatu, 11, were found by their new parents through the Heart Gallery. James and Brandy Brodie have four kids of their own, but that didn’t stop them from looking for a little girl to adopt.

But when they found her, she had more baggage than they expected- an older brother.

“We were apprehensive at first because of his age,” Brandy said. “But people shouldn’t assume how a teen is before you meet them. We fell in love with him immediately.”

Eric and Aisatu are African refugees who have spent four years in the Pasco County foster system. Now that the paperwork is official, they’re back in Jacksonville as part of the Brodie family to begin their new lives.

“We felt that there are so many kids out there that need some stability,” Brandy said. “We wanted to give some kids some love and family.”