by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
If the courtroom is standing room only and every judgment is met with applause, then Judge David Gooding’s Family First Fridays must be in session.
Tired of watching adoption cases trickle through his courtroom one at a time, Gooding, a circuit court judge in the Juvenile Division, used the monthly proceedings to throw open the floodgates about two years ago. Family First Fridays are essentially open calls to adoptive families to have their unions stamped legal.
With help from the Jacksonville Guardian ad Litem’s office and Family Support Services of North Florida, Gooding has helped to nearly triple the number of children adopted in Duval and surrounding counties.
Friday’s session brought the number of 2005-06 adoptions to about 330. In 2003, the number was 108.
The scene in Gooding’s courtroom at the Duval County Courthouse Friday was typical: long lines of would-be parents outside vying for limited bench seats; inside it was equal parts smiles and tears.
Waiting outside, Dennis Kleppin and wife Gail prepared to adopt two of their grandchildren, two-year-old Tianna and three-year-old Trevionne. Gooding’s session brought to an end three years of paperwork and hearings.
“What it means is they’ll be our children, not part of the foster system,” said Dennis. “I get about four weeks of vacation a year and I’ve spent about all of it on the adoptions.”
It was a shorter wait for the Hoffer family inside the courtroom — Gooding signed the order to make Arron and Tammie Hoffer the legal parents of eight-month-old Gracin after just three months as foster parents.
“We feel like he’s the missing piece of our family,” said Arron, using Gracin’s bib to wipe away tears.
Infants like Gracin have traditionally moved quickly through the system. The cooperation among Gooding, FSS and the Guardian ad Litem’s Permanency Project has helped speed the process for older children as well, said Helen Spohrer, who left private practice to lead the Permanency Project.
After two years of recruiting volunteer attorneys for the project, Spohrer has a record that any college football coach would envy. The initiative has 40 volunteer attorneys and 16 law students helping adoptive families slash through bureaucratic red tape.
“Their enthusiasm for the project has been remarkable,” said Spohrer. “They hand in one file and ask where their next case is.”
Several of the adoptive parents Friday told Gooding that they discovered their new children on the Jacksonville Heart Gallery. The traveling exhibit displays photos of children in need of adoption taken by volunteer professionals. The Heart Gallery is a FSS initiative.
Gooding marveled at the traveling gallery, which is currently on display at the Jacksonville Landing.
“We had one photographer from Sports Illustrated volunteer,” said Gooding. “He took pictures of these kids playing football and they look like they should be on the cover of the magazine.”