Adoption ceremony highlights need for Peninsula foster families

Published 1:30 am Friday, November 22, 2024

PORT ANGELES — Nine-year-old John and 4-year-old Ella had a long time to wait before they found their forever home.

Four years ago, the siblings were placed in the foster system. After they bounced between a few foster homes, they were placed with Alexis Biss in 2022.

On Thursday, John and Ella’s place in Biss’ family — and her heart — was solidified.

The adoption ceremony, held at Clallam County Superior Court, was a chance to both celebrate John and Ella and highlight the need for local foster families.

In Washington state alone, there are more than 4,900 foster children.

Although programs try to place them with foster families in their local communities, Sherri Jones, adoption specialist with the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) said that’s not always possible.

In Clallam County, Jones said the lack of foster homes often leads to children being placed in communities as far away as Tacoma, Bonney Lake and even Vancouver, Jones said.

Just this year, Jones said she’s had to place about 10 children in homes off the North Olympic Peninsula.

“This is our community, and these are our children,” she said.

Jones said there is an especially large need for local families to foster older children, who may come with a lot of trauma, and babies who have been affected by drugs and may need specialized care.

Individuals who want to foster, or adopt, should fill out the foster parenting inquiry form on the DCYF website, Jones said.

Foster families can come in all shapes and sizes. Biss is a single mother who, after a lack of successful fertility treatments, said she decided to offer her home to kids in need “while I had that ability.”

John and Ella were her first long-term foster children. Biss said she had a feeling that these children would be hers, although reunification with their biological family was always the goal.

“It would have been just as meaningful to be there with them during reunification with the biological parents,” she said.

When it became clear reunification was not possible, Biss started the adoption process.

Adoption is free in Washington state, and Jones said the state also has a number of programs to provide support for adoptive parents.

There are monthly subsidies, reimbursement for adoption attorneys’ fees, free youth counseling, continued medical and dental coverage for the adopted child and more, Jones said.

Now that Biss has adopted John and Ella — and has a 3 1/2-month-old biological daughter — she decided to quit her caregiving job and open a home daycare to give her more flexibility.

“I imagine it’s going to be very tough, but that’s the story of my life,” she said.

Although she’s faced struggles, Biss said she’s been propped up by community support that has helped her through “some of the bumps.”

One of those support organizations is the Olympics Angels Love Box Program, which partners volunteers with foster families to help provide support, with the goal of minimizing continual displacement of foster children.

Now that John and Ella are adopted, instead of foster children, Biss said the Love Box volunteers will support her in an official capacity for the next year. However, given the genuine connections that Biss and her volunteer support team have created, Biss said she imagines they’ll always be around in a non-official capacity.

“[We’ll] probably always be friends,” she said.

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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.