Bailey’s is Featuring the Indiana Heart Gallery for National Adoption Awareness Month

Nearly 400,000 children are currently in foster care nationally. More than 100,000 of those kids are legally available for adoption. November is National Adoption Awareness month and one local business is doing their part to help connect children in need to individuals who may be looking to make an addition to their family.

From now until November 10th, Bailey’s Discount Center will feature a photo exhibit from the Indiana Heart Gallery. The Indiana Heart Gallery is an organization that travels around the state with compelling portraits and stories of children in need of adoptive families. In 2007, the program was started by the Indiana Department of Child Services in order to put actual faces on a need that sometimes seems invisible. Continue reading

Adoptions Are Historic Emotional Moments in Starke Circuit Court

The Earnest family went through the adoption hearing before the public and the media on Friday.

It was an emotional day in the Starke Circuit Court yesterday as Judge Kim Hall finalized four adoptions in an historical moment before the public and the media. For the first time in the history of the Starke County Courthouse, Chief Justice Brent Dickson signed a rare order authorizing the adoption proceedings to not only be open to the public, but also to be televised and recorded by the media. Only three counties in Indiana were given this order.

In honor of National Adoption Awareness Month and the increasing need for adoptive families, the four adoption hearings were held before a packed courtroom with several guest speakers, including Rhonda Adcock, the director of Starke County CASA, who spoke about how important adoption is.

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