A group of 15 children in Florida celebrated their first Halloweens Sunday with their forever families after being adopted in a special Halloween-themed adoption ceremony.
One of the children adopted was Shyla Sheppard, who turned 8 on Oct. 29, 2021, the day the adoption ceremony took place inside the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida.
Shyla, a second-grader, dressed up in costume as a bailiff and banged the gavel at the end of each adoption, according to her mom, Angie Sheppard.
"She had me in tears," said Sheppard, a day care owner who first met Shyla two years ago, when she started attending her day care center after entering the foster care system.
Sheppard said one day while at day care Shayla asked her to be her mom, and two years later, once Shayla was available for adoption, Sheppard, already a mom of five, followed up.
"When she came to day care again, I said, 'Do you still want me to be your mom?,' and she said, 'Yes,' and we started the process," recalled Sheppard. "To know that she's in a forever home now, I'm so happy and satisfied."
Another child adopted in the "Home for Halloween" adoption ceremony was 2-year-old Isiah Littles.
Isiah was adopted by Christopher and Pierre Littles, also the parents of a 5-year-old son, who together have fostered nearly 20 children.
"It was really exciting and fun to see all the kids dressed in costumes and there with their families," Christopher Littles said of the adoption event. "The biggest takeaway is there are definitely kids out there who need a loving, caring home."
Jenn Petion, president and CEO of Family Support Services of North Florida, the area's lead community-based care agency for child welfare, said ceremonies like "Home for Halloween" are not just fun celebrations but important tools to help kids who are newly-adopted move forward, especially around the holidays.
MORE: 300 people pack courtroom to see boy adopted after 1,553 days in foster care"The holidays can be a particular particularly challenging time as they remember the family that they didn't have and the pain of of not being able to be in a safe and loving home," she said. "So to have a finalization event that's tied to a holiday really starts to change those memories and allows them to symbolize the start of forever, the start of something new, and that they really can have that wonderful happy ending."
The Halloween-themed adoption finalization was the first in-person group event of its kind held locally since the coronavirus pandemic started last year, according to Petion, who dressed in costume as Elsa from the movie "Frozen."
"I don't think there was a dry eye in the courtroom," she said, noting that seeing some of the kids dressed up as superheroes was especially memorable. "I always think of our foster kids as superheroes, because they really have been through some of the most unimaginable things in their young lives. They are always superheroes in disguise."
The ceremony also marked the start of National Adoption Awareness Month, which is recognized annually in November. Across the country, more than 400,000 children are in the foster care system, according to 2019 data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
During the pandemic, Petion's organization, Family Support Services of North Florida, was helping 200 more children than they normally average.
"We need families of all different types from diverse backgrounds and different stages of life to meet the needs of diverse kids in our system," said Petion. "Whether that is a temporary parents in foster parenting, or whether that's a forever home through adoption, we need a wide variety of families to match the special needs and abilities of our kids."
MORE: How adoption helped shape this modern family: 'Unconditional love is a choice we make'Sheppard said she never expected to find herself in the courtroom adopting a daughter, but she is so glad she did.
"She is the life of the house now. Everybody just fell head over heels in love with her," Sheppard said of Shyla, adding of her advice to others considering adopting or fostering a child, "Don't be afraid. Take the leap."
