Amesbury family, 12 others adopt on National Adoption Day | Local News

SALEM — It was a day of pure pleasure for 13 households at Essex Probate and Family Court on Friday, together with Abimael Pereira and his newly adopted 8-year-old son, Nicholas.

They had been joined by 12 different households who had been celebrating National Adoption Day on the courthouse by doing simply that: adopting.

(*12*) mentioned his spouse, Jessica Pereira. “This is special.”

The Pereiras traveled from Amesbury with their three sons for the ceremony. While the 2 youngest had been born to the couple, Jessica had Nicholas earlier than she and her husband received collectively. But that doesn’t make them any much less of a household, Abimael Pereira mentioned.

“I’ve known him since he was 1,” he mentioned. “Right away, we connected.”

The household handed by 4 giant picket rocking horses on show on the courtroom forward of the adoption ceremony.

The horses had been painted by excessive schoolers at Clark School in Rowley to commemorate these households’ milestones. For 16-year-old scholar Katie Ryan, attending the ceremony was a full circle second.

“This is all kind of surreal because I’m adopted myself,” Ryan mentioned. “It makes me happy to be back.”

Ryan was adopted on the Federal Street courthouse when she was a 12 months previous. She added colourful photographs of moons and stars to the horse she labored on for the occasion, and labored extra time together with her classmates on days off from faculty to color international locations’ flags and different decorations on the horses in time for Friday.

It’s the sixth 12 months Clark college students have created artwork for National Adoption Day on the courthouse, mentioned Jeph Ellis, artwork director at Clark School.

An adoptee himself, he spoke to the households about his personal experiences.

“I know who my real parents are: Robert and Barbara Ellis …” he advised the group of households. “I have lived a storied life, a beautiful life and at times a hard life. But I have never wondered who I am and have always been comfortable in my own skin.”

While most mother and father solely have to attend 9 months for a child, Ellis’ mother and father waited 9 years. And when an adoption company referred to as them for a sudden and nondescript assembly someday in 1970, they’d no thought they’d be bringing a 10-day-old toddler again to their Rockport residence.

They needed to scramble to get diapers, method and all the pieces else a new child would wish. But they had been a household, and would go on to adopt somewhat lady from Colombia named Carolyn, who has since adopted a son of her personal.

“When you go through everything that you go through when raising a kid, and then they become a teenager, and they survive, and we survive, we come to this moment and I’m just incredibly proud of my son,” Robert Ellis mentioned.

Artist and craftsman Don Stokes designed and constructed the horses from recycled supplies offered by Mark Little at Abacus Builders of South Boston. Attorney Patricia Johnstone donated the saddles, whereas casks had been donated by Ryan and Wood Distillery in Gloucester and Steve and Trish Castraberti of Prince Pizza in Saugus. Todd Flannery, proprietor of Flannery’s Handymen, donated his truck and manpower to move the horses to the courthouse.

After the occasion, they had been donated to the state Department of Children and Families visiting heart in Salem, Adoption Journeys Child and Family Services in Lawrence, and the Children’s Law Center in Lynn.

Lt. Col. Marisol Chalas got here to Lynn from the Dominican Republic when she was 8. She was the primary particular person in her household to go to school, has been within the Army Reserve as a Blackhawk pilot for 32 years, is a nuclear engineer and an adoptive mom.

She adopted her niece Geanni in 2021, a 12 months after Geanni’s mom died abruptly. While Geanni was already in her 20s on the time, it was an vital step for the pair to take.

“Children never outgrow the need for family, even as adults. Adult adoption can be a powerful way to legally and permanently recognize a family’s relationship, as was the case for Geanni and me,” Chalas mentioned in the course of the ceremony.

Chalas mentioned she hopes others will think about adopting one of many 100,000 kids up for adoption within the U.S.

“These children aren’t someone else’s responsibility,” she mentioned. “They are our responsibility.”

Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com and observe her on Twitter @CarolineEnos.