When Omijean Timmons began the process of adopting little Dashawn, she was told the state would give her $1,500 to help cover the cost of adoption.

By the time Dashawn became her little boy in August, state budget cuts had shrunk that one-time stipend to $250.

Gov. Mark Sanford wants to bump that back up and make other improvements in the way the Department of Social Services handles adoptions. Almost 5,000 children are in foster care in South Carolina; 1,300 of those are eligible for adoption.

It takes an average of four years — double what the federal government has set as a national goal — to adopt a child in South Carolina’s foster care system.

Sanford said Friday that his budget proposal for the next fiscal year would restore the adoption benefit to $1,500.

Sanford’s office said it would cost $575,000 to do so and would require legislative approval. That is far from a sure thing, given the state’s financial situation.

Lawmakers return to Columbia in January facing a minimum $300 million shortfall in revenues from the coming year.

But Sanford said restoring the stipend is necessary, despite the budget problems.

“It’s in a family that we learn about love; it’s in a family we learn about patience,” Sanford said at a State House news conference to announce a series of initiatives to improve the adoption process.

Surrounded by adoptive and foster families, Sanford and Department of Social Services director Kim Aydlette unveiled their plans, which would:

• Allow state employees to take sick leave to care for an ill foster child. Currently, employees can take sick time off only to care for biological or adopted children. Sanford has instructed the state Office of Human Resources to make this change.

• Work with the state court system to more quickly process cases involving termination of parental rights. In most cases, a child is not eligible for adoption until that is settled.

• Consolidate the application and licensing procedure for foster and adoptive parents. This would help existing foster parents to more quickly adopt a child. This change is already in effect.

“While the majority of our adoptive parents come out of that foster parent pool,” Aydlette said, “we were making them go through a second bureaucratic process to become licensed as adoptive families.”

It took nearly two years for Timmons to adopt Dashawn, but she said it was worth it.

“I would have still done it. I didn’t go through nine months of carrying a baby and delivery, but going through that whole process, it was just the same.”

Carl and Mary Brown of Berkeley County have fostered more than 100 children in their home over nearly 30 years.

“Mary and I realized the importance of a loving, nurturing permanent family,” said Carl Brown, thanking Sanford and Aydlette for the new emphasis on fostering and adoption.

Brown told the story of their adopted daughter Lillian, who 25 years ago was brought to them as a foster child by Social Services. She was six months old and weighed 12 pounds, Brown said.

“They said she’s not going to make it,” Brown said.

But then the girl began to coo and move and turn over.

“At night, Mary would sleep in a recliner with her, hold her against her heart, so she could feel that love. This child had never been loved and you have to be taught love.”

Once the child reached school age, teachers told the Browns they could never educate her.

Brown said his daughter now has a college degree and in April, he walked her down the aisle as she got married.

“Does a family make a difference?” Brown said. “Yes it does.”

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com.