Brittany and Jeffrey Peters Came From Tennessee to Ohio to Adopt Their Nephew Dayton, Who Came Into Their Care at 5 Months Old

“There’s no reason to ever see a family member go through the system,” Jeffrey Peters told a Montgomery County, Ohio, judge on Monday, Nov. 2, when he was asked why he and his wife, Brittany, wanted to adopt their nephew Dayton. The judge approved the adoption that day, and from then on the boy is Dayton Allen Ray Peters.

Dayton came into the care of his biological aunt and uncle at 5 months old, according to WHIO-TV in Dayton. When the Peterses got the call that he needed a home, they came to Ohio from Tennessee to get him.

What the Judge Found in Montgomery County Probate Court

Judge David Brannon presided over the finalization, which was part of the court’s National Adoption Day hearings. WHIO reported that Brannon found all necessary parties had been notified or had consented, and that it “is in his best interest to approve the adoption.”

Brannon is the elected judge of the Montgomery County Probate Court. His court biography says he was elected in 2020 after more than 15 years in estate planning, trust and probate practice. Adoptions fall squarely within his court’s work: the county’s probate court page says the court holds exclusive jurisdiction over adoptions, along with estates, trusts, guardianships and marriage licenses.

The same page notes that adoption records are not readily available to the public, which is part of why Monday’s hearing was unusual.

A Courtroom That Is Normally Closed

Brannon told WHIO that these hearings are typically closed to the public, but the families involved agreed to open theirs to share part of the adoption process. National Adoption Day, he said, draws attention to the number of children in the care of children’s services and to adoption itself.

Dayton’s was not the only finalization the station covered. Jennifer and Kevin Kremer went from having no children to six when their adoptions were finalized. According to WHIO, those children were placed in the care of Children’s Services in 2024, and on Monday their last name officially changed to Kremer. The family came to court in matching family jerseys, and Kevin Kremer told the station he was “just happy to give them their forever home.”

Brannon told the station that the hearing reaches many more people than those in the room, which he called special and impactful. He compared the day to a Disney movie, where the story may start sadly but ends happily ever after.

Relatives stepping in is a pattern Parent Diaries has followed before. A Texas couple finalized the adoption of their niece in front of the judge who had been on her case from the start, as covered in this report on the Coburns and their niece Meadow.

How the County’s Adoption Days Have Run in Past Years

Montgomery County runs its National Adoption Day event jointly through the probate court and Montgomery County Children Services. The county’s National Adoption Day page, which describes the 2022 event, says eight families adopted 14 children that day, a record at the time, including five teenagers and four sibling groups. It adds that about 200 county children were waiting for a permanent family then, and that older children, sibling groups and children with special needs often wait longest.

WYSO reported that in 2023 the county again finalized 14 adoptions on National Adoption Day, matching its record, and that 72 adoptions had been finalized or scheduled for finalization in Montgomery County so far that year. The station cited more than 115,000 children in U.S. foster care waiting to be adopted, including more than 3,000 in Ohio.

The Dayton Daily News covered the same 2023 day and put the county’s total at 70 finalized adoptions the year before. It described foster parent Crystal Cook adopting Jayce, 3, who came to her as an infant, and Steven and Kimberly Bilancia adopting three children who came to them through foster placements. Kimberly Bilancia said adoption adds chapters to a child’s story rather than rewriting it: “They have a past, but it’s the future that will define who they are for the rest of their lives.” Craig Rickett, an associate director at Children Services, said adoptive and foster parents do not have to be perfect.

In 2025, WHIO reported that seven children officially joined their adoptive families at the probate court on the day, while about 100 children in the county were waiting for adoption and 700 were in the county’s foster care system. Kelly Paull, who finalized the adoption of her son Jackson, whom she had cared for since he was two weeks old, said the family had waited almost two and a half years. County Commissioner Mary McDonald, who adopted a child 42 years ago, told the station, “There are no perfect families.”

The event is national. According to National Adoption Day’s own site, it began in 1999, and courts and organizations in more than 400 communities hold finalizations and celebrations around it. The organizers say more than 95,000 children have moved from foster care to permanent families through the event.

The county page also says reunification with the birth family is the primary goal. When that is not possible, Children Services looks for the best permanent home.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Antony-22 – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons