JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 There was a Halloween celebration with an extra-special twist at the Duval County Courthouse on Thursday. <\/p>\n
Thirteen children found their forever families during Family Support Services\u2019 seventh annual \u201cHome for Halloween\u201d adoption event. It was a day filled with laughter, love, and new beginnings.<\/p>\n
The 13 children were adopted by 10 forever families. For some, it was a double celebration. Two children celebrated birthdays. Four children marked their first Halloween officially home after leaving foster care in less than a year.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Ashley Matson, a single mother and teacher, adopted her third child, a one-year-old girl named Edyn.<\/p>\n \u201cShe had been just the light of our family. She is so peaceful and smiling and happy and funny,\u201d Matson said.<\/p>\n Matson says adopting again on Edyn\u2019s first birthday feels like fate.<\/p>\n \u201cI am a single parent, but this is my third time adopting and my second time this year. My first was almost eight years ago now, and my adoption in July was a 16-year-old. So, big difference from 16 to one,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI am a teacher. I\u2019ve taught elementary, middle, and high school. So, I have seen all of the different needs of any age,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For Matson, every child deserves the same thing \u2014 love.<\/p>\n \u201cAll children need to love no matter if it\u2019s just for a couple of hours, a couple of days or weeks, or forever,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n From trick-or-treating to new beginnings, this Halloween at the courthouse was all about family and finding a forever home.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 There was a Halloween celebration with an extra-special twist at the Duval County Courthouse on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":344056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[7320,169362,5229,7323,14621,169360,3188,723,7324,169363,169361,7310,7327,7325,7326,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7322,7321],"class_list":{"0":"post-344055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action-news-jax","9":"tag-adoptions-in-jacksonville","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-cbs47","12":"tag-duval-county-courthouse","13":"tag-family-support-services","14":"tag-fl","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-fox30","17":"tag-halloween-adoptions","18":"tag-home-for-halloween","19":"tag-jacksonville","20":"tag-jacksonville-fl","21":"tag-northeast-florida","22":"tag-southeast-georgia","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa","29":"tag-wfox","30":"tag-wjax"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115465283519858662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}