Human Services Department Holds Adoption Event

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Minnesota Department of Human Services kicked off an event Sunday aimed at promoting adoptions and giving children and teens loving and permanent homes.

Currently, there are more than 800 children in our state that are waiting for a home, and finding homes for older children is particularly hard.

Yves Spies, who came from Ivory Coast Africa when he was 12, was adopted just a year ago when he was 17. He said this event gives teenagers a chance at happiness.

"It means giving a teenager a chance to live, giving them a chance to be happy, to be normal and to have support," he said.

Spies is a senior in high school and he hopes to go to college.