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Dreams Come True For Dozens Of Foster Kids On National Adoption Day

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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) -- Emotions ran high for more than 40 foster children who were placed into the arms of a loving forever family at a special event in Ft. Lauderdale.

National Adoption Day
Veronica Sands is kissed by her adopted daughter Berniya Sands as they wait for the start of a adoption court on National Adoption Day marked at the Miami Children's Museum on November 20, 2015 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Celebrating National Adoption Day, the Broward County Courthouse hosted a party Saturday morning that included food, music and the finalization of adoptions.

"Today was a very special day for us because we adopted two of our foster children today," said Bonnie Nieves, now a mother of three. "It was very exciting, everyone was super surprised. Lots of tears."

The day highlighted National Adoption Month, which has helped link nearly 58,000 foster children with new families since 2000.

"The foster families that we have are extraordinary. We always need more," said Kenny Brighton, Director of Community Relations at ChildNet a non-profit that protects abused, abandoned and neglected children. "And foster parents can look like anything. They can be single fathers, it can be your traditional family, it can be two mothers, two fathers, it can be grandparents. As long as you have room in your home and love in your heart, you can do this."

Around the country, more than 100,000 children are currently in the foster care system waiting to find permanent families. Currently, about 2,300 kids are in Broward's foster care system. 140 of those are eligible for immediate adoption.

"We have kids that are entering foster care every single day and we roughly have probably less than 300 foster families here in Broward County and that just doesn't equal the need that we have out there," Brighton added. "Every single foster family that comes into our program makes a huge impact."

Many of the children have endured abuse or trauma.

"And these are the first people who are gonna help them," Brighton continued, "who are gonna help them heal, who're gonna help them realize their potential."

In the last year, 268 children were adopted in Broward.

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