During National Adoption Month in November, the Connecticut Department of Children and Families takes a day to highlight some of the hundreds of adoptions that happen every year across the state.
On Friday, 6-month-old Jeziah was legally adopted by Jessica Villanueva, who has been fostering him since birth.
“Oh, my God. It’s like the best day ever,” said Villanueva.
Villanueva works with children with special needs as an educational coach and inclusion specialist. She previously fostered and adopted her daughter, Jeziah’s older sister.
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Jeziah was born testing positive to fentanyl, meth and cocaine, according to Villanueva.
He is in occupational therapy and has difficulty with sucking. Otherwise, Villanueva said he’s developing great, meeting all his milestones, and is such a happy baby.
“Very loving. Everybody loves him. In his daycare, everybody wants to go to his classroom. They always got to say hi to him because he’s such a happy child,” Villanueva said.
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This is one of the 420 adoptions DCF facilitated this year.
DCF representatives said the ultimate goal is reunification with the birth family, but when that can’t happen, the goal is to have the child’s guardianship transferred to a relative or to be adopted.
DCF uses Connecticut Adoption Day to highlight the importance of adoption and celebrate the children reaching legal permanency.
Teenagers, sibling groups and children with medically complex conditions tend to be the harder groups to find homes for, according to DCF.
For those thinking about fostering a child, Villanueva said it can be a very rewarding experience.
“Even if the children do get reunified [with their birth families], at least you know that while they were with you, they were in a loving and safe home. However, it’s an emotional rollercoaster. You have to be mentally stable to be able to do this and obviously, these children who were removed from their bio-families are going to come with trauma. So, you have to be ready to understand, my child might have some developmental delays or might need help with this or that. So, you have to be ready to provide all those services for the child,” said Villanueva.
