Seneca and Deontia Atkinson hold their newly adopted 19-month-old daughter, Charis, during the Adoption Day celebration Wednesday in Clark County Family Court. Photo by Gary Thompson.

In the space of a year, G. Jean Brooks lost her New Orleans home to Hurricane Katrina and inherited the care of her brother's three sons.

They came together almost as strangers, Brooks said, since she had left Las Vegas for Louisiana before they were old enough to know and remember her.

After the hurricane, Brooks sought refuge in Las Vegas but was confronted by a new crisis -- what to do with the children after her brother was incarcerated.

The 56-year-old teacher had to decide whether to raise a second family or allow the boys to go into foster care.

"It wasn't really a choice," said Brooks, who accepted custody of the children in January. "This is what was right. They are family."

On Wednesday, Brooks made her three nephews her adopted sons. They flew to Las Vegas this week solely for the purpose of finalizing their status as a family.

Brooks and her nephews were among the 27 adoptions finalized in Clark County Family Court as part of the fifth annual local celebration of Adoption Day.

"There was no way to be at peace with myself with any other decision," said Brooks, who taught health and physical education at Eldorado High School in 2005-06, before returning to New Orleans. "And the boys have been great. They're such a big help to me."

Randy Williams, 14, is the oldest of the three and shows remarkable skills with electronics, Brooks said.

Ramon Williams, 12, is the academic one with a talent for reciting sports statistics.

Jamal Williams, 8, likes to play football and follows the Philadelphia Eagles, much to his aunt's chagrin. She backs the New Orleans Saints.

Dressed in suits and ties, the three brothers fanned around their aunt in the second-floor corridor of Family Court, reminding her of why she needs them.

"Aunt Jean, you forget everything," Randy Williams said.

"That's right," Brooks said. "I'm old."

The creation of new families is one of the few happy duties that falls to a Family Court judge, said Judge Nicholas Del Vecchio, who was hoarse after formalizing 15 adoptions in his courtroom.

"The numbers keep going up every year," Del Vecchio said. "It's truly wonderful. Adoption is the gift of life and love to a child."

Tom Morton, director of Clark County Family Services, said about 178 children are in county custody who are in need of adoptive parents.

That number includes 46 sibling groups.

Although the county has 175 families who have been approved and licensed as prospective adoptive parents, the problem is in making the match, Morton said.

Generally, those interested in adopting children are looking for infants or very young children.

And generally, the children waiting to be adopted are older and may have special needs.

"Our priority is finding families who are willing to take a range of children into care and support our efforts to rehabilitate the family so that the child can return to the home," Morton said.

That can't always happen, Morton said, and there are foster parents who go on to adopt the children placed with them.

But, Morton stressed, adoption only becomes an option when reunification is no longer a possibility.

In those cases, nothing is as satisfying as pairing a child who needs a family with a family who wants a child.

"This is one of those great, happy days that makes up for other days that are not quite so happy," Morton told parents and children assembled for celebratory cake and punch.

Del Vecchio chimed in with an Italian adage he translated for the crowd: "The family is very important for a happy life."