National Adoption Month has been celebrated for over two decades. Every November, organizations come together to recognize adoption, to celebrate those who have been adopted and to raise awareness for those who are still waiting to be adopted.

According to the most recent report there are over 428,000 children in foster care waiting to be adopted. Every year 40,000 infants are placed into foster care and wait for an average of three years before being reunited with their families or adopted. However, many are never reunited or adopted. Each year, more than 20,000 children “age out” of the system. This means they never had a place they got to call home or a two people they got to call mom and dad. It is not uncommon for children to have lived in 20 to 30 different foster homes. We have a growing problem on our hands and it is our duty to raise awareness and be the advocates for those children.

Adoption can be a beautiful process of love and growth for families all over the world. The word adoption provides hope to many, but hope must be followed up by actions. It is crucial that we make the facts known and speak out on behalf of the children who are in desperate need for loving and permanent families. It just takes one person to make a difference. You might not change the world by adopting a child, but you will change that one child’s world.

We recognize the problem at hand and desire to be part of the change. We hope you will join us this November in promoting and celebrating adoption. If adoption is something you feel called to please do not ignore God’s nudge, because adoption is essential to who God is. K.J. Davis said, “Adoption is a beautiful picture of redemption. It is the Gospel in my living room.”

National Adoption Month History:

• 1976: Michael Dukakis, Governor of Massachusetts, announced an Adoption Week. He hoped to raise awareness of the need for adoptive families for the children in foster care.
• 1984: President Reagan proclaimed the first National Adoption Week.
• 1995: President Clinton expanded the awareness week to the entire month of November.
• 1998: President Clinton directed the Department of Health and Human Services to create a plan to use the Internet as a tool to find homes for children waiting to be adopted from foster care.
• 2008: President Bush provided an explanation of National Adoption Month in Spanish.

Information provided by childwelfare.gov, abcnews.go.com and the National Council for Adoption

Did you know these organizations support adoption or have an adoption friendly work environment?

• Wendy’s
• Netflix
• Snapchat
• Etsy
• Bears for Humanity
• General Mills
• Dominos
• JPMorgan Chase & Co
• National Basketball Association
• The Ohio State University
• Patagonia, Inc.