One of the responsibilities of Hamilton County (Ohio) Probate Court Judge Ralph Winkler is to finalize adoptions. In 2022 alone, Judge Winkler oversaw more than 180 adoptions. And since 2015, he’s helped create 2,150 new families in his courtroom!
“I feel blessed to be the adoption judge here in Cincinnati and it’s been really the highlight of my judicial career to be able to do the adoptions.”
“The importance of adoption in our society is paramount, because I feel like all kids deserve to live in a loving, safe, and caring home.”
The judge, who has more than 20 years on the bench in various roles, and before that as an assistant prosecutor, cites addiction or mental health issues – or both - for about 90% of the cases where birth parents find themselves unable to properly care for a child. “Thankfully, it’s fairly rare that there’s extreme abuse or a problem like that.”
Winkler says judges aren’t supposed to cry on the bench, but he explains what people might see now and then are his “happy tears” on an adoption day.
(here's our full interview podcast)
Because some cases he presides over involve serious matters not involving adoption, the judge shares a strategy that brings him some balance. “I like to start Monday morning with an adoption, and I like to end my week – my last case on Friday – I always try to schedule an adoption. I start the week off great and I end the week, great – but in between that time, I do a lot of other cases that aren’t usually quite as happy.
So, for me (adoption finalizations), it’s kind of like Christmas Day,” he smiles.
“I just have a soft heart for families that adopt. And adoption is not easy. It requires a lot of courage and a lot of times the children have special medical issues and I admire the courage of adoptive parents to step up and help these children out.” One of Winkler’s goals has been to try and change the mindset about adoption, telling people “You don’t have to be perfect to adopt.” As a parent himself, “I tried my hardest with my children and I did the best I can, but I can’t say I was a perfect parent.” He shares, “It’s a lot of hard work being a parent,” but he believes “if you’re willing to love and care for and keep a child safe, then you’re qualified to foster and/or adopt a child and it really helps the community.”
Judge Winkler is a man of faith. “I do feel like I was given a chance for this job by God because I had a heart for children and coaching my whole life.” He credits his parents with encouraging him to volunteer and help people in the community. “I consider it my ministry to be the adoption judge and I had some prompting I feel by God to run for Probate Court (an elected position).” He had been a judge since 1999, but didn’t become the adoption judge until January of 2015.
In his earlier judicial role, he was sometimes given serious criminal and civil cases where children were hurt or abused. It weighed on his heart. And stuck with him.
And separately, he noticed in pre-sentence reports that involved felony convictions, “the thing I started realizing, they were all very different people, but there was one common thing in every repeat offender report: they either didn’t have a family or they were mistreated by their family. So I kind of wanted to change that dynamic (as adoption judge) so we could get a child into a loving, caring, safe home as soon as possible – and out of a dangerous home” because “on the (earlier) criminal cases, the worst offenders were where something usually bad happened to them as a child.”
Well-known adoptions
“When I have my adoptions, I talk about the superheroes that were adopted, fictional characters – Superman, Spiderman and Batman were all adopted in different ways,” which helps the kids being adopted to better understand what adoption is.
Funny things can happen with kids in a courtroom. When the judge asked a 5-year-old boy if he knew that Spiderman was adopted, “he was like, ‘yeah, I knew that’” and shows the whole courtroom his Spiderman underwear!
Faith factor
Adoption reports that the judge sees contain a great deal of family information, including what their faith, if any, is. He finds that in his adoption cases “over 90% of the people that are adopting identify as Christians… so the church must be doing something right. So even though we as Christians are not perfect – and the churches aren’t perfect – it’s kind of a good note that Christians adopt at a much higher rate than non-Christians.”
If a family does not mention faith in court, the judge respects that. But if a family wants to pray in court, Judge Winkler allows it. And in these particular cases, he sometimes reminds families that Moses was adopted by Pharoah’s family in Egypt and did great things. But by far, “The best adoption in the Bible is when we figure out, we can’t make it through this world on our own and we cry out for God’s help, and he adopts us right away and saves us.” He adds, “If adoption is good enough for God, it’s good enough for me.”
In our complete interview podcast below, Judge Winkler shares about a couple of “extra special” adoption cases. In one situation, a woman who was 17, unmarried, and in high school, allowed her infant son to be adopted. Then, 21 years later, that birth mother actually adopted her biological son’s daughter. An unusual and loving full-circle case.
He also shares a case where a couple in their 20’s adopted a young man who had been living with them in guardianship after the death of his parents. At the time of adoption, he was 17, just five years younger than his new legal adoptive parents!
