Tarrant County kids get ‘forever mommy and daddy’ at adoption ceremony

Lizzy has never had a full-time mommy or daddy.

Until now. On Friday morning at the Family Law Center in Fort Worth, Lizzy was adopted by Misty and Josh Roberson of Grand Prairie.

“The judge is going to tell us this is going to be our forever mommy and daddy,” Lizzy, 8, said moments before her adoption became official.

Lizzy Roberson and 65 other Tarrant County children were adopted by more than 40 local families at a ceremony as part of National Adoption Day. This year’s focus was on sibling adoptions, organizers said.

“This event is so important,” said retired Tarrant County Juvenile Court Judge Jean Boyd as she watched families pour into the courthouse. “We have children who have come from very hard and difficult places. Some of them have been abused and neglected. … They were wards of the state; Today they’re getting permanent, loving families.”

At the ceremony, the Roberson family grew to five children from three. The Robersons have three daughters — Alex, 11, Madie, 10, and Kenzie, 8. On Friday morning, they added Lizzy and Nick, 7, to their circle.

“We wanted to expand our family,” said Misty Roberson, 35. “He wanted 10 kids and there was no way I was going to have 10 kids.”

A beaming Josh Roberson said of fatherhood: “If I could do it full time, I would.”

‘These families are the heroes’

Friday’s event was part of a national effort to raise awareness of the 107,000 children and youths in foster care in the U.S., Tarrant County organizers said.

As of September, Tarrant County had 881 children living in foster care, including 208 who are still waiting to find a home, according to event organizers including Court Appointed Special Advocates of Tarrant County, an organization that has served child abuse victims since 1983.

On Friday, Mariah Black of McKinney appeared in a Wonder Woman costume to greet the children and their families. She was part of the nonprofit group Heroic Inner Kids, whose members wear superhero costumes at special events.

“These families are the heroes,” Black said. “They are superheroes.”

‘Kind of giddy right now’

More than six months ago, Ivonne and Elwood Want of Arlington attended a Dallas event to learn more about foster families. The Wants heard alarming stories of accounts who had to be placed in separate homes.

“We knew we could stop that from happening at least one time,” Elwood Want said. “I’ll be 52 in December and on my 50th birthday, I just said [to my wife], ‘Let’s get some kids.’ ”

On Friday, the Wants adopted four brothers: David, 13, Aurelio, 11, Giovanni, 10, and Jesus, 6.

“We just like them living all under one roof,” said Elwood Want, who also has two adult children.

“We’re just kind of giddy right now,” he said, as the family prepared to make the adoptions official.

This story was originally published November 20, 2015 at 3:50 PM with the headline "Tarrant County kids get ‘forever mommy and daddy’ at adoption ceremony."