KESQ.COM News Services

RIVERSIDE - Riverside County Superior Court will convene a rare weekend session today to conduct adoption hearings to unite 90 children with new families.

For a second year in a row, the court will participate in National Adoption Day, an occasion to celebrate the finalization of the adoption process for several thousand kids.

More than 300 adoption day events are planned in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

Since National Adoption Day began nine years ago, some 25,000 children have been adopted from foster care on that day, according to the Alliance for Children's Rights.

The event, traditionally held the Saturday before Thanksgiving, is intended to raise awareness about the roughly 129,000 children in foster care, who are eligible for adoption, according to organizers.

The court and county Department of Public Social Services are coordinating this year's adoption proceedings, which are scheduled at the Riverside County Historic Courthouse in downtown Riverside, the Larson Justice Center in Indio and the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

During hearings slated to run all Saturday morning, judges and commissioners will finalize the adoptions of 90 children, ages 10 months to 17 years, by 57 families, according to court officials.

In some cases, members of the news media may be granted access to the 15- minute-long hearings, which are typically closed to the public, officials said.

Refreshments will be served at each location, and volunteers with the nonprofit group Building Bears for Other Kids will hand out Teddy bears to each adopted child, according to organizers.