COUNCIL BLUFFS — “Crazy, exciting, emotional, overwhelming, awesome” is how Becky Renshaw described it as people crowded into the Pottawattamie County Courthouse Saturday morning on National Adoption Day.
Balloons floated upward, and 24 children stood ready to take the final step to join permanent families.
Renshaw and her husband, Tony, of Pacific Junction, Iowa, adopted five children Saturday – Jordan, 10; Hannah, 9; Savanna, 6; Leanna, 5; and Kay Kay, 2 – all siblings.
After waiting eight months, the family was happy to have reached the end of the adoption process, Becky said.
“It’s neat to see the kids so excited, too,” she said. “They know that they’re going to have a home.”
District Judge Kathleen Kilnoski kicked off the opening ceremony of the Southwest Iowa National Adoption Day Celebration in the courthouse lobby.
“What’s happening today is, we make legal what you already know in your hearts — and that is that you are a forever family,” she said.
Mayor Tom Hanafan thanked the judges, clerks and other workers who volunteered to work on Saturday “to make a difference in the lives of 24 children.” These people are the unsung heroes of National Adoption Day, he said.
Dr. Jeff Snyder, director of emergency services at Alegent Health Mercy Hospital, talked about how grateful he was for his adoptive parents.
“What if I had not been adopted? What if my family had not adopted me? I think, without the same love and care, the same outcome would have been unlikely,” he said. “I have had the best life I could ever ask for. I never really lacked anything.
“None of us can choose our parents,” he said. “But all these parents do have a choice, and — guess what? They’ve chosen you.”
Adoption ceremonies also took place in Omaha, Kearney, Grand Island and Hastings in Nebraska. National Adoption Day promotes the joy of adoption and calls for more families to get involved.
The Renshaws became foster parents about four years ago. “We felt God was kind of leading us to do that.”
The Renshaws help with the Trailblazers program at Crossroads Christian Center.
“A lot of kids we work with are in foster care,” she said. “We see a lot of homes they come out of, so that made us want to help them.”
They met their five children in February and became their foster parents in March.
“We just got a call from their caseworker one day” about a sibling group of five, she said. “It took about a half-hour, then we called her back and said yes. They came out of foster care to us.”
At the time, the couple had two foster children who have since been reunited with their mother.
The fact that the children were siblings weighed heavily on their minds, Becky said, “because if they don’t find somebody to take five, they split them up.”
She said she was happy to know the children wouldn’t have to be moved again.
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
