Ohio Couple Adopts 3 Sisters on First Day of National Adoption Month

An Ohio couple adopted their foster children, who are three young sisters, on the first day of National Adoption Month.

The three sisters were adopted on November 1 by their foster parents, Thomas and Zipporah Souffrain, at the Mahoning County Courthouse, according to the Vindicator.

For about four or five months, the girls would stay at the Souffrains’ home every other weekend until they moved into the couple’s home last December, the Vindicator reports.

Children Services Adoption Assessor and Caseworker Elizabeth Kollar would go visit the Souffrains to see how the family was doing, the Vindicator reports.

I think our first choice would be anybody who is a match for the kids,” Kollar said, according to the Vindicator. “Zipporah and Thomas are able to provide these kids what they need. They’re hands-on parents. They are extremely involved in school. They are extremely involved in counseling.”

“So everything these girls need, these parents are able to provide,” she added.

“We decided it would be nice to give back,” Thomas said, per the Vindicator. “It made sense. Just to give these kids the best possible chance to achieve in life.”

Thomas Souffrain spoke to the evolution of his relationship with his three new daughters in an interview with WKBN.

“They’ve grown on me. Now they’re no longer foster kids. They weren’t just my foster kids — it’s more like they are like my girls, now,” he told WKBN.

One of the children, Myra, told WKBN how excited she was for her special day.

“I’m very excited because I’m getting adopted,” Myra told WKBN.

Thomas says the girls have endured a tumultuous past to get to the point they are at now, which was one of the factors as to why he and Zipporah wanted to officially adopt them, according to WKBN.

Zipporah recalled watching a video of the girls that prompted their consideration about becoming foster parents to the children.

“I watched the video of the girls and got all misty-eyed. When we both watched the video, we both had tears in our eyes,” she said per the Vindicator.

As the legal process has come to an end and the five are officially a family, Thomas says the new family can work to achieve a sense of “normalcy.”

“And second of all, we can kind of get to a normalcy, our normalcy of just being a family. Just us — opposed to having the intrusion of others coming into our home,” Thomas told WKBN.

Judge Robert Rusu stated, “I like to say that the three young ladies and the adoptive parents are all lucky because they all found one another.”

It is most fitting that the girls were adopted on the first day of National Adoption Awareness Month. The beginnings of Adoption Awareness Month started with former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1976 when he established adoption awareness week, according to childwelfare.gov. Eight years later in 1984, President Ronald Reagan founded the initial National Adoption Week. Finally, President Bill Clinton dedicated the entire month of November to adoption awareness in 1995, according to childwelfare.gov.

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