Butler County Probate Judge Randy Rogers has witnessed the joys of foster children adopted into forever homes over the past two decades.

Butler County Probate Judge Randy Rogers has witnessed the joys of foster children adopted into forever homes over the past two decades.

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way Ohio’s courts have operated for eight months, but one judge is making sure a life-altering day for families will remain “normal.”

Saturday marks National Adoption Day, a nationwide initiative encouraging courts to open on or around the Saturday before Thanksgiving to finalize and celebrate adoptions from foster care.

It’s a celebration that goes back at least 15 years for Butler County Probate Judge Randy Rogers.

“You listen to [family’s] stories and how people got involved in foster care, and you listen to the children, and it is by far the most rewarding aspect of my tenure,” said Judge Rogers, who’s been on the bench since 1995.

In years past, the observance would draw hundreds of visitors to the Butler County Courthouse with dozens of people waiting for hearings. There have been occasions with as many as 25 adoptions in a day, and eight children adopted by one family.

This year, the court will still hold cases in person, but limit the number of attendees to 10. Adoptions via videoconference will be available, as well. To minimize possible exposure to the coronavirus, the court also is spacing out proceedings, scheduling each hearing hourly instead of the customary 20 to 30 minutes.

“There’ll be fewer people on that day, but those who are there, what they experience, it’ll be the same,” Judge Rogers said. “It’ll be another great day in the Butler County Courthouse.”

National Adoption Day came on the heels of National Adoption Month, and National Adoption Week, proclaimed in 1995 and 1984, respectively. To date, more than 75,000 foster children have been permanently placed across the country as part of National Adoption Day events.

2020’s festivities will be the last time Judge Rogers makes memories from the bench. He’ll retire at year’s end.

“I go out into the community, and people are all the time mentioning me and my picture in their family albums,” Judge Rogers said.

The 69-year-old has done his share of documenting the special occasions. As an avid writer and storyteller, he’s composed tales from many of the hundreds of adoptions he’s handled.

The one that stands out to him is about a toddler fittingly named Hope.

In 2003, a couple became foster parents as an alternative to having their own children after an experimental cancer treatment saved the husband’s life, but left him unable to have his own natural children. After two discouraging years in a foster-to-adopt program without placements, the couple considered opting out, only to get a call from Butler County Children Services about a 20-month-old girl.

“They went to go meet her,” Judge Rogers recounted from their court testimony. “The girl had to be carried in because of [developmental issues] where she couldn’t walk. That little girl crawled into the man’s lap, and the bond was sealed.”

Roughly two years later, she was running around and greeting the approximately 70 people who filled the courtroom to witness her special day.

To conclude his hearings, Judge Rogers’ adoptions employ three gavels: one for “baby bear,” one for “mama bear,” and one for “papa bear.” Then, the children at the events bang a gavel, as Hope once did.

Shortly before Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer’s passing in 2010, Judge Rogers gifted him a self-published book with 12 such stories entitled, “Some Stick with You.”

“What I as a judge experience is amazement at the love that pours out during the hearings,” Judge Rogers said. “Tears flow, and everybody goes away feeling good about things. You just become so much more aware that there are really good people in this world.”