Kayla Seyler can't wait to adopt Parker, a 1½- year-old girl Seyler's family has been fostering since she was born in February 2015. And on Saturday afternoon, Parker was joined by her three future brothers for the Adoption Celebration hosted at the Monarch Place in Butler.

The celebration was an opportunity for adoptive and foster families and children to celebrate families and maintain important connections within the community, according to Nic Landon, with Family Pathways. The agency is a non-profit that is part of the Pennsylvania Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network, also called a SWAN.

“We like to maintain connections with the families that we've been able to stand by in the past,” Landon said. “Not only might they come back, but also they often times are the best advocates for the needs out their for youth.”

The celebration also recognized November as National Adoption Month, with Butler County's Adoption Day scheduled for Nov. 18.

Kortney McConnell, with Family Pathways, said there are 12 adoptions scheduled to be completed that day.

In 2015, there were 42 adoptions in Butler County, which is typically average. In the state, there are between 13,000 and 15,000 children waiting to be placed, Landon said.

And with such a wide variety of children, there's a need for diverse types of families, Landon stressed. As long as an individual is at least 21 years old, they can adopt.

That's one of the misconceptions people have in mind when they think of why they cannot be a foster or adoptive family.

“You don't have to own your own home. You don't have to be married. Same sex couples can legally adopt in Pennsylvania, and that's been a growing demographic of families,” Landon said. “The bottom line is that we have all different types of kids who are waiting to find and expand their family so we need all types of families. Families in the country, families in apartments downtown, all different types for all different kids.”

For instance, families can have their own biological children and want to add to their home or they can be parents who cannot have children of their own, McConnell said.

The Seyler family, from Cowansville, has three biological sons, ages 1, 3 and 5, according to Kayla Seyler. In November, they will be adopting Parker to add to their family.

“We've had her since she was born, since she came home from the hospital,” Kayla Seyler said.

Kayla Seyler always knew she wanted to adopt, but she found out that an international, private adoption would be much more expensive. Another option for adoption, through being a foster family was intimidating to her, she said, but with the guidance and training from Family Pathways, the Seylers have been fostering for three years.

And it's not something that has negatively impacted her biological sons either, she said. The Seylers have been honest with them from the beginning about what foster care and adoption is, sharing as much as they can with the young children.

“They know her adoption day is coming up, and they are so excited,” she said. One of the boys even sings to Parker about being her brother and loving her forever, Kayla Seyler said.

But unfortunately, not every child is as lucky to find a family so young or quickly. There's a wealth of older children in the system who are looking for a good fit family. Often, older children can be more difficult to place for any number of reasons, McConnell said.

In Pennsylvania, there's a grant called the Older Child Matching Initiative, the grant program that Landon works with specifically.

“That (grant) was created in order to address the number of older youth in Pennsylvania that (are) ages 10 to 21,” Landon said. “Older youth need families also, and they're going to need families after they turn 21.”

Anastasia Vulhop, from Renfrew, is 14 years old, and she was adopted this past April.

Keith and Jennifer Vulhop, her adoptive parents, said they knew it was a match from the start.

“We were real open as far as what we were looking for,” Jennifer Vulhop said. “We knew as soon as we met her that it was a good match.”

The Vulhops also like to joke that they skipped the diapers and temper tantrums stage — but Anastasia, as a teenager, joked that they aren't out of the woods for temper tantrums just yet.

Although Anastasia has two other sisters who do not live with her, she still sees them, and having her own family now has made her “feel more like a normal child,” she said.

However, while Anastasia's case is unique, Family Pathways works primarily towards reunification with biological families, according to Landon and McConnell. If that's not possible, the agency looks for kinship placements, such as with a grandparent, aunt or uncle.

“The first responsibility of the county is to return youth to their homes. Reunification is priority number one,” Landon said. “Most youth who enter the county's foster program are in that category and most do return home. When they don't return home, the second priority is to maintain kinship and keep siblings together…the likelihood for success is increased when you maintain that familiarity.”

Landon said the agency also provides training and resources for foster families and the children, even after permanent adoption.

“Youth who enter the foster care system already have the deck stacked against them,” Landon said. “We work to make sure that they have as many positive resources and positive connections as they can because they're going to need that through the course of their life.”

For instance, there are trainings to help foster and adoptive parents better understand older youth and their experiences in the system, according to Landon. One previous workshop was called Understanding and Acknowledging Youth Perspectives, to help humanize the youth.

“It utilized video interviews with different youth in the PA foster care system, most of whom were in group homes at the time of filming,” he said. “Some of the responses that the kids gave are like, 'I'm going to push people away when I feel like I'm getting too close.' The one unifying thing that I've witnessed is that the experiences that youth in the foster care system have had have given them the reasonable expectation to expect little from other people. The biggest thing I would say is that from the very first day, they're going to have to be building a trust with that youth whose trust in people has been jeopardized from a very early age. But that despite that, all of the youth I work for, they want a family.”

For more information on becoming a foster or adoptive parent or family, contact Family Pathways at 724-284-9940. Family Pathways is housed in the Monarch Place, 100 Brugh Ave.