Deborah Anderson sat between two girls wearing matching pink-and-green floral print dresses and lace tights. All three smiled as she signed the papers that officially made her the girls' mother.
After a long and frustrating wait, Anderson, 40, adopted the sisters Saturday during what was believed to be the largest adoption hearing ever, with 130 children officially being united with families.Attorneys, judges, social workers and court staffers volunteered their time to hold the hearings on a day when court is usually closed. Five courtrooms at the Edelman Children's Court were open through the afternoon so each family could have an individual adoption hearing.
Jasmine, 7, Venus, 4, and their 2-year-old brother Dino, who is not ready for adoption, have been living with Anderson for about 31/2 years. Venus came to her first when she was 6 months old after she was found in a trash can.
"When she was found, she was picked up in the trash, she had alcohol in her bottle and (was) going through drug withdrawal," Anderson said.
The three children joined two other youngsters already living with Anderson, a single waitress who has been a foster parent and guardian to 34 children over the years.
"Today is a wonderful day," said Andrew Bridge, the alliance's executive director and the creator of the mass adoption.
There are 73,000 children in the Los Angeles County foster care system, he said, making it the largest in the country.
The mass adoption was created because of the tremendous backlog of pending adoptions in the county, with between 250 to 300 children ready for adoption at any time, Bridge said.
When the hearing ended, Anderson hugged everyone in sight, including her new daughters.