Jennifer Montez Adopted Her Grandson Julian in a Lucas County Courtroom on National Adoption Day
Julian Davis Montez became his grandmother’s son in a Lucas County, Ohio, courtroom on Monday, Nov. 2. Jennifer Montez adopted him at a National Adoption Day ceremony, where a judge granted the petition and changed the boy’s name to Julian Davis Montez, according to a WTOL report shared on Yahoo.
Lucas County Children Services marked the day with five children finding permanent homes across four adoption ceremonies. Julian’s was one of them.
A Grandmother Who Has Raised Him Since Infancy
Julian came into Jennifer’s life when he was about 4 months old, and he has lived with her and her youngest daughter since he was about 7 months old, WTOL reported. The report does not give his current age.
Judge Jack Puffenberger presided. He had already been part of the Montez family’s story: nearly 19 years earlier, he finalized the adoptions of Jennifer’s three oldest children.
The Judge’s Last Public Adoption Ceremony
For Puffenberger, the Monday ceremony was his final public adoption ceremony. He has personally finalized more than 8,400 adoptions in his career, according to the report.
He said seeing families come together gives him a great feeling and that he will miss it.
Randy Muth, executive director of Lucas County Children Services, said the agency gets to witness “the creation of a family.” He encouraged people to consider becoming foster parents, saying that all it takes is love. The report does not give details on the other four children or their families.
What National Adoption Day Is
National Adoption Day is an annual effort to raise awareness of children waiting to be adopted from foster care. According to its official site, four national partners launched it in 1999: the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, the Alliance for Children’s Rights and the Children’s Action Network.
The site says more than 100,000 children are waiting to be adopted from foster care, and the event has recognized more than 95,000 children moving from foster care to permanent families. Courts and organizations in more than 400 communities hold events on or around the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The next one listed is Saturday, Nov. 21, 2026.
How Relative Adoptions Work
When a grandparent adopts a grandchild, the same adoption laws apply as for other families, according to the National Council for Adoption. In its overview of kinship adoption, the group says adoption creates a final, legally recognized relationship, while informal caregiving arrangements can change over time. Public foster care adoptions generally have no cost, it says.
The council cites federal data showing that in fiscal year 2020, about 35% of foster care adoptions were completed by stepparents or other relatives.
Generations United, an advocacy group for families raised by relatives, says in its grandfamilies fact sheet that about 7.6 million U.S. children live in a household headed by a relative other than their parent, and nearly 6 million of them are with grandparents. It cites research finding that children placed with relatives have more stable childhoods, fewer school changes and better behavioral and mental health outcomes, and more often report that they always felt loved.
Where Families Can Find Help
The federal Child Welfare Information Gateway says financial support and adoption preservation services may be available through state offices and private organizations. Its adoption page points families to resources on support before and after an adoption.
For the Montez family, the ceremony made official what the household had been for years: a grandmother, her daughter and a little boy who now carries her name.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: Joe Gratz – CC0/Wikimedia Commons
