November..Adoption Awareness Month

November is National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month, a month set aside each year to raise awareness about the adoption of children and youth from foster care. This year's National Adoption Month initiative targets adoption professionals by focusing on ways to recruit and retain parents for the 115,000 children and youth in foster care waiting for adoptive families.

The first major effort to promote awareness of the need for adoptive families for children in the foster care system occurred in Massachusetts. In 1976, then-Governor Mike Dukakis proclaimed Adoption Week and the idea grew in popularity and spread throughout the nation. President Gerald Ford made the first National Adoption Week proclamation, and in 1990, the week was expanded to a month due to the number of states participating and the number of events.

During the month, states, communities, public and private organizations, businesses, families, and individuals celebrate adoption as a positive way to build families. Across the nation, activities and observances such as recognition dinners, public awareness and recruitment campaigns, and special events spotlight the needs of children who need permanent families. It also includes National Adoption Day, traditionally a Saturday, which is observed in courthouses across the nation as thousands of adoptions are finalized simultaneously.

Adoption touched my life..first as an unwed mother who had no alternative but to place her child for adoption. Secondly,five years ago on Mother's day, My Daughter Lisa contacted me! Since that day, our lives have become more closely intertwined: she has met all of her birth relatives from my family,while I have met her Mom and adopted siblings, as well as  husband and children.
To read my story, please click here:Adoption, another alternative.

I also have a very special friend who has adopted internationally three times. Her middle child has Autism. All three boys are very special and deeply loved. The oldest child, and the youngest are blood siblings! What a coincidence!

For more information, go to Adoption.Com.