CANYON, TX -- Families gathered at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum to celebrate a gift that keeps on giving.
Today is National Adoption Day, and the folks at the Department of Family and Protective Services are treating their families with a free meal provided by Wendy's.
"This is our way of saying thank you to families -- coming forward, opening up their hearts and their homes to our children and providing a forever home for them," said Amy Anderson, Department of Family and Protective Service Adoption Supervisor.
Leah Evans, adoptive mother, says she and her family are actually the lucky ones.
"I've had a lot of people tell me that we're wonderful people for doing this, and how they blessed our lives, but in turn we found that it's been probably a greater blessing to us than it's been to them. We have a lifetime full of blessing and memories that we can share with them."
Expressing how those blessings feel leaves one father a little speechless.
"When you get home from work and you see the smiles on their faces, and they're running up to you and all that love is there -- it's just awesome. To see them smiling and to know that they're loved and the way they love you -- it's just amazing; it's just hard to describe the feeling that you get raising them," said Paul Preciado, Adoptive father.
Last year more than 300 children were adopted in the departments serving area.
