All smiles in court: a mass adoption

Julie Johnson sat with her soon-to-be-adopted daughter, 2-year-old Rachel, squirming on her lap, overjoyed that her mission was nearly complete.

Rachel was about to rejoin her two older sisters in the same family.

Johnson’s sister had tried to adopt all three girls last year but was told her house was large enough for only two of the sisters. So Johnson stepped in to provide a home for Rachel -- that way, the three girls could remain close as they grew up.

“They should be able to know each other as siblings,” said Julie Johnson, of Yucaipa. “It’s families taking care of families, and that’s what they are for.”

Rachel was among the nearly 100 children at San Bernardino County’s ninth annual Adoption Finalization Event on Wednesday. Four judges and two legal officers conducted the ceremonies for the families who ventured from as far as Michigan.

“There’s a lot of emotions,” said Liliana Esquibel, 33, of Corona, who adopted siblings Rayanna, 8; Jeremiah, 5; and Cinderella, 4. “This is probably going to be one of the happiest days of my life.”

Children entered the Ontario Convention Center on skates, strollers and their new parents’ shoulders. By ceremony’s end, many, in ties and dresses, grinned ear to ear.

The county conducts about 500 adoptions each year, but the November celebration is the largest. Many of the parents have already been caring for their children, so the event is more celebration than official act.

“This is the end of two or three years of trying to get a family to be known as permanent,” said social service practitioner Tamara Scott. “This makes the children a part of the parents’ home from this day forward.”

The families took pictures and patiently waited through speeches before shuffling to makeshift courtrooms where the deals were officially sealed.

“We do many things that people are conflicted over, where it’s a stressful situation,” said Presiding Judge Larry W. Allen of the county’s Superior Court. “Adoptions are one of the few things we do where everyone is happy.”

Natividad Leyva’s life is changing in a big way. She adopted five boys at the event, all nephews of hers, ages 2 to 8. The brothers had been in different foster homes and Leyva jumped at the chance to reunite them.

They will go home to La Puente, where Leyva has three teenage daughters. “My husband always wanted boys,” she said. “Now he has five of them.”

But for Jason and Patrice Richter of Redlands, the ceremony was merely a formality.

“It felt permanent from Day One,” said Patrice Richter, who adopted siblings Christy, 8; Jessica, 5; and Brent, 2. “They fit in so well with us, and we fit in with them.”

Across the convention room, David Ballew, 4, colored in pictures with crayons while his sister, Ana, 6, rehearsed what she planned to say to the judge.

Pointing to her new parents, Bill and Stephanie Ballew, she declared, “I’m going to say I want to stay with them forever.”

jonathan.abrams@latimes.com