CHEYENNE, Wyo. — In 2022, the Wyoming Department of Family Services and local certified adoption agencies helped 108 children get adopted into permanent families.
To recognize the agencies’ efforts and raise awareness about adoption, the Laramie County Commissioners approved a resolution this afternoon declaring November as National Adoption Month. The event is also celebrated nationally by the Children’s Bureau within the U.S Department of Health and Human Services.
Per the resolution, the department encourages people to “focus on how small steps open doors for youth along their journey towards permanency. Asking youth what’s important to them, telling them you have their back, and keeping an open mind are some small, yet impactful actions that can build trust and lead to meaningful conversations that uncover possibilities for permanency.”
Wyoming’s Department of Family Services helped facilitate 74 guardianships for children and families in 2022. The Confidential Intermediary Program also helped facilitate reunifications of family members touched by adoption, with approximately six confidential intermediary petitions filed in Wyoming courts statewide, the resolution states.
Kristin Burkart, CEO of Wyoming Children’s Society, said she is grateful for the commissioners’ support.
“Your support creates hope, awareness, understanding and advocacy for adoptive parents, potential adoptive parents, birth families, children waiting for their forever homes and dedicated professionals in the file of adoption,” she said during the meeting.
The topic of adoption hits home for many, including Commissioners Linda Heath and Gunnar Malm.
Heath adopted two children and her stepson, and said both experiences are “very near and dear” to her family.
“I’ve always looked at [adoption] as a crazy quilt,” she said during the meeting. “You never quite know what you’re going to get. It’s multiple colors and multiple shapes, but it’s a family that’s pieced together by love and choice.”
Six weeks ago, Malm and his wife drove to Casper to adopt their young son, Judah.
“It’s really a remarkable, amazing thing that I can’t fully describe,” he said during the meeting.
Malm expressed his appreciation for his family, friends and fellow community members helping him obtain baby supplies afterwards.
“By the time we got home the next day, our house looked like a Target had thrown up all over,” he said. “The outpouring of support from our family our community as a whole that rallied around us and brought us everything we need … has been an overwhelming and an amazing thing.”
