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 <<<<\/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: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/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: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/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":2,"featured_media":27071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[344,20238,347,5891,20236,28,348,20239,20237,116,351,118,117,349,350,346,345],"class_list":["post-27070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action-news-jax","tag-adoptions-in-jacksonville","tag-cbs47","tag-duval-county-courthouse","tag-family-support-services","tag-florida","tag-fox30","tag-halloween-adoptions","tag-home-for-halloween","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-fl","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-northeast-florida","tag-southeast-georgia","tag-wfox","tag-wjax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}