D’armynie, 6, and Dazreuion, 9, play outside their Texas City home. Pam Bryant Kheerani started caring for the sisters and their brother more than two years ago. Saturday, they will become an official family during National Adoption Day.
TEXAS CITY — Pam Bryant Kheerani, of Texas City, will bring three children to National Adoption Day festivities Saturday at Moody Gardens.
The foursome will leave as an official family.
It’s all part of a national celebration — and legal proceeding — to complete adoptions of more than 4,500 children from foster care.
Galveston’s event includes a petting zoo, Santa Claus, clowns, face painting, refreshments and a focus on some brand new families.
“National Adoption Day is a collective national effort to raise awareness around foster care and adoption, and a very important way we help improve the lives of children in foster care around the county,” Rita Soronen, executive director of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and member of the National Adoption Day Coalition, said in a news release.
This is the 10th year for the national event that gathers adoption professionals, child advocates, judges, attorneys and foster children in a one-stop coordination of permanent homes.
The Galveston event also will include Bikers Against Child Abuse. Lawyers for the adopting families, along with Family District Court Judge Janis L. Yarbrough and Associate Judge Suzanne Radcliffe, will donate their time to complete the adoptions.
“It’s going to be a family outing,” Kheerani said.
The divorced, single mother of a grown son volunteered to care for a sibling group of three children more than two years ago.
The children, who range in age from 3 to 9, created a lively household.
“I think they keep me young,” Kheerani, 51, said. “Children bring you joy and happiness. It’s more like they’re my blessing than I’m their blessing.”
Kheerani didn’t hesitate when she was given the opportunity to adopt the children.
“We are all going to be one big, happy family now,” she said, speaking by phone from her home.
Kheerani’s extended family, including five sisters and one brother, have joined in to help care for the children.
“The children get nothing but love all around them,” she said.
D’enarius or “Pumkin Boo,” D’armynie or “Momo,” and Dazreuion or “Nana” are also part of the family of Greater Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Galveston. Faith is an important factor in the home life of the children.
“People say, ‘You’re raising them alone,’ but I always put that I’m not alone because we believe in God,” Kheerani said. “He’s there with us.”
Helping behind the scenes in the Galveston event is Trudy Deen Davis, former Children’s Protective Services worker and adoptive mother herself.
She looks forward to the celebration when foster children are given a forever family.
“They celebrate as a family unit that has overcome a past and is looking forward to the future,” she said.
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At A Glance
WHAT: National Adoption Day
WHEN: 9 a.m. Saturday
WHERE: Moody Gardens, 1 Hope Blvd., Galveston
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Statistics
• More than 1,700 children in the Houston-Galveston region are waiting to be adopted;
• Of the 1,700, 53.7 percent are African American, 23.6 percent are Hispanic; 28 percent are 6 to 10 years old, 19 percent are 11 to 14 years old and 72 percent are part of a sibling group;
• Last year, 4,831 abused or neglected children and teens were adopted from state care in Texas; and
• More than 6,000 children are waiting for permanent homes.
SOURCE: Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
