In a job where she often sees people at the worst times of their life, Judge Norma Kauzlarich got to celebrate one of the best days ever for a handful of Quad Cities families Friday, Nov. 21.
A Circuit Judge for the Rock Island County Juvenile Division, she presided over formal adoptions – in a courtroom decorated with many purple, silver and white balloons and many employees wearing T-shirts saying “Wanted, Loved and Adopted” – on National Adoption Day at the John R. McClean, Jr. Juvenile Justice Center, 525 18th St., Rock Island.
“While most days in court involve resolving conflict, National Adoption Day is a powerful exception—it's a day dedicated entirely to creating unity and joy,” said Kauzlarich, whose worked for the juvenile court less than three years.
“Here in Rock Island County, it's a celebration that brings together families, court staff, and social workers to witness the beautiful moment a child officially joins their permanent, loving home,” she said. “It’s a testament to the fact that families are built on love, and it’s the best day of the year to be a judge.”
This is the third National Adoption Day celebration held in Rock Island, where the county averages about 40 child adoptions a year.
Since launching National Adoption Day in 1999, courts and organizations in more than 400 communities across the country have opened their doors on or around the Saturday before Thanksgiving to finalize and celebrate adoptions from foster care.
National Adoption Day has recognized more than 90,000 children moving from foster care to a permanent family.
“National Adoption Day is one of the most significant and joyous occasions in the Rock Island County Juvenile Justice Center,” said Chief Judge Clarence M. Darrow. “It is the day the law's formal process culminates in the creation of a 'forever family.' We are not just closing a case file; we are opening a new chapter of love, stability, and hope for a child.
“This day profoundly affirms our community's commitment to the well-being of our children, and it is a privilege for the judiciary to preside over such happy beginnings,” he said.
“You understand what this entails? This is a lifelong commitment, until you die,” Judge Kauzlarich told one couple, Matthew Ade and Jaime Eldridge of Hampton on Friday morning. They formally adopted two-year-old Stella, who’s the biological sister of their adopted daughter Naliana, 9.
“Are you OK being a big sister? You promise to help take care of her?” she asked Naliana. “You promise to chase her around the house?”
“One of the biggest things for us today is bringing two biological sisters together, keeping them together in one family, making sure that they’re in safe hands with the right teacher and given the opportunities that they might not otherwise have,” Ade said, who was also with his two other foster daughters, ages 6 and 3.
The judge gave each family a new backpack with a children’s book (about Max the dog), written by retired Judge Linnea Thompson and her husband, former Moline mayor Allen McCaulley.
A new big family
Ade and Eldridge were married in 2019, and newly adopted Stella, who was born August 28, 2023.
Her dad called Stella “like Godzilla.”
“The best way to describe her is, we clean up the playroom and she'll be the first one just to wreck it,” Ade said. “But she is very sweet and very caring and especially with her older sisters. She has a big heart and she's so polite. She's very fun.”
Adoption is “one of the most meaningful things that not only we can provide, but the state can provide to them as well,” he said. “I think, for myself, share the same view that you're giving these children and showing them that the world's not such a dark place no matter what situation that they came from, and that you don't have to be blood to be family and that there are people out there that will be there for you and care for you. It's nice to have a community that has that same viewpoint.”
They hope to formally adopt Rayna, 6, in the first quarter of 2026, and another three-year-old girl (who was there Friday) after that.
“We were having difficulties having our own children. Fostering had been in the back of our mind,” Ade said. “I had relatives that foster, co-workers that foster and adopted. And I discussed it with them. And the big thing was, if we can't have our own children, let's at least give some children a home and a future and an opportunity.”
They first took in Naliana in 2020, and adopted her in January 2023.
Ade and his wife took Stella home from the hospital after she was born, since her biological mother had a criminal history.
“Due to her criminal past, the doctors and nurses recognized and called DCFS and made the report and they called us,” Ade said. “Since we had the biological sister, we were the first. And so we brought her right home. And the hardest part was the mom willingly surrendered parental rights, but they had to give the biological dad the opportunity. He basically went MIA and so they had to give him six to nine months to officially abandon before we could start that.
“And so that was actually the longest process, was just waiting for him to not come back or not show up,” he said.
They first became foster parents to Rayna in March 2022. The couple wanted to adopt four kids, since Matthew and Jaime both come from big families.
“We're fortunate enough to have a big enough house to accommodate them. I'm fortunate enough to have a good job to where my wife rarely has to work, to where we can take them in and take care of them,” Ade (who works at the Constellation nuclear plant in Cordova) said.
Ade recommended adoption for other couples who can’t have their own kids. They have fostered three other children, who later went back to their parents.
“You have to prepared to be hurt because there's been placements with us that you know, eventually went back with the parents,” he said of fostering. “So you have to be emotionally strong with it and realize that you might go through some emotional pain with it. But you know, it's extremely rewarding, especially giving them the opportunity of the things that they never would have had in the first place, letting them find that niche.”
Adopted after 865 days in foster care
Andrew Smith and his wife Erin adopted two-and-a-half-year-old Adleigh Mae on Friday, joining her adoptive sister Emsley, 5 ½.
“National Adoption Day today means a completion for us,” Smith said. “It’s been an almost two-and-a-half-year process and we are very thankful today has come.”
They got a newly framed sign that said, “Adleigh Mae Smith…I was in foster care for 865 days but today I am ADOPTED…November 21, 2025.”
“We’ve been very blessed in the fact that our agency, Bethany for Children and Families, they helped us through the process on the way,” Andrew Smith said. “We have a great support system. Obviously, we have judges at the local level; we have family and friends that have been able to help us. It’s not an easy process but it’s 100% worth it.
For their family, adoption made sense, since he and his wife couldn’t conceive a child on their own.
“It was something we were very passionate about, starting a family,” Smith said. They’ve been married since 2018 and adopted Emsley in August 2025.
“We are excited to see what their future holds for them, and we hope in our home, they’re gonna flourish and thrive in what they’re going to do next,” he said. “It means opportunity. It allows us the ability to not only complete our family but also an opportunity to provide them with family.”
It’s hard to find foster families, and they take comfort in the fact their girls are safe and fed every night.
“It’s one of the most fulfilling things you could ever do,” Smith said of parenthood. “I would encourage anyone to look into this route. It’s so fulfilling and words can’t really express it.”
They’ve had Adleigh since she was two weeks old, and Emmy two weeks before that, since July 2023.
Judge Kauzlarich, who’s been at Juvenile Court two and a half years, is the first woman judge in the position.
“I try not to think with my heart too much because I'm a judge, but I have a huge thing for children, and I always think that the three populations in my head that are the most defenseless are children, old people, and animals,” she said Friday. “So you're in a courtroom that I deal with delinquency matters and abuse and neglect matters.
“So it was difficult for me at first to adapt, because what some of these children are subjected to from birth on until they come into our system is very difficult,” Kauzlarich said. “Difficult for me to understand because I don't understand why children are not a priority for everybody.”
It takes a village to adopt
The judge said adoption is truly a collaboration among many people and organizations to make a reality.
“It is a combination of the hard work of the agencies, the generosity of the families, and the commitment,” Kauzlarich said. “I just think that when they're little like that, that's when they form their identity, their bonds and that stuff. I'm so excited that today is happening and that we're doing this. I do adoptions all year long, but like for today, I tried to schedule as many out of the foster care system for these kids and that now have stability and permanency, absolutely.”
“We are in desperate need for foster parents. We're in desperate need,” the judge said. “People always want little kids. So once they hit the age of five, between five and it's hard for us to place them because everybody wants a baby, and I get it. But we need foster parents for all ages. Last one I just had, he's 16 and I think he's been in the system for four or five years and it shouldn't take that long. It should not take that long. So we're in great need for foster parents and foster parents whose heart is in it.”
The biggest challenges are finding foster and adoptive parents for special-needs and older kids, Kauzlarich (herself a mother of two grown children, and grandmother of six) added.
National Adoption Day is a collective, grassroots effort to raise awareness of the more than 100,000 children waiting to be adopted from foster care in the U.S.
A coalition of national partners — the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, Alliance for Children’s Rights and Children’s Action Network — founded National Adoption Day.
Learn more at nationaladoptionday.org.
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