Teddy bears, balloons and smiling children are not the norm in courtrooms, but they will be for one Saturday morning in Hamblen County.
In honor of National Adoption Day, Chancellor Thomas (Skip) Frierson will hold court at 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, in the Hamblen County Courthouse to finalize the adoptions of a dozen children, including a sibling group of six. The children will leave the ceremony with new last names, new families and a new sense of security - some for the first time in their short lives.
For Frierson, the legal duty is a personal pleasure.
"As the father of three adopted children - a daughter and two sons - I cannot imagine a more rewarding and fulfilling honor than to have a small role in creating these new families," he said. "We adopted our youngest child this year, so this event is especially meaningful to me personally."
The judge and his staff, with assistance from the Bar Association, are providing refreshments and will decorate the courtroom with balloons. Each child also will receive a special Teddy bear to commemorate the change in their lives.
"Handling adoptions is always very special," Frierson said. "Courtrooms often are the scenes of confrontations and angry exchanges, so it is wonderful to do something in a courtroom that makes so many people happy."
The Frierson family includes children adopted in the United States and from Russian orphanages.
"We started the process the first time around in 1993," Frierson said. "We went through Holston United Methodist Home for Children in Greeneville. In August of 1994, we got a phone call and were told they had a little girl who was six weeks old. We were ecstatic. They called on Tuesday and were on our doorstep with our new daughter on Friday morning."
The Friersons took custody of the baby immediately and started the legal proceedings for adoption. Then, in 1998, the family decided it was time to add a new member - a sibling for their daughter. But, they learned it could take up to five years to adopt a baby domestically, so they contacted Catholic Social Services to find out about the possibility of a foreign adoption.
After completing the background checks and paperwork, the couple waited for a call telling them they would be going to Russia to bring home the baby son they had seen only in a video and a few snapshots. This year, they returned to Russia and brought home a second son.
National Adoption Day was designed to facilitate the adoption of foster children and bring attention to their plight. Across the nation, attorneys, judges, foster care professionals and child advocates join forces to encourage the adoptions of children needing permanent homes.
About 10,000 Tennessee children are in foster care, including more than 1,000 who are available for adoption. Frierson said in some cases parents have voluntarily given up their children, but many others have had their parental rights terminated by the courts because of child abuse or neglect.