November is National Adoption Awareness Month

Adoptive parenting comes in quite a few shapes and sizes. There’s domestic adoption (open, semi-open, and closed), there’s international adoption, there’s fostering-to-adopt–and this is just scratching the surface of a few of the “big” ones. (There’s also step-parent adoption, adoption within families, and so on, just to name a few more.) Today is the first day in a very important month; November is marked as National Adoption Awareness Month (NAAM). If you’re unfamiliar, Adoption.com offers a fantastic amount of information, complete with suggestions for ways your family can celebrate each of the thirty days in November. While adoption in every form is deserving of a full month of focus, the official purpose of NAAM spotlights the adoption of children currently residing in foster care.

National Adoption Awareness Month leads up to a big day near the end of the month. November 21 marks the 10th anniversary of National Adoption Day, which is defined as “a national day of celebration of adoptive families and an opportunity for courts to open their doors and finalize the adoptions of children from foster care.”  Did you know that since the year 2000 more than 25,000 children have had their adoptions finalized on National Adoption Day? The same site, NationalAdoptionDay.org, offers a list of National Adoption Day events hosted in each and every state. A quick check of my home state, Illinois, produced the results of  two separate, recognized events taking place on National Adoption Day. Anyone attending one of the events hosted in your home state? You can even follow NationalAdoptionDay.org on Twitter for up-to-the minute information regarding National Adoption Day.

So now that you know the basics of National Adoption Awareness Month and National Adoption Day (if you didn’t already), you might ask why it’s so important to focus on foster care adoption. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children & Families states that according to the January 2008 AFCARS (Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System Report), there were approximately 510,000 children in the U. S. in foster care on September 30, 2006. Reread that number again, if you will…over half a million children in foster care on September 30, 2006. Some are special needs, some are older, some are sibling groups, but all are in need of one uniting factor: a forever family overflowing with love.

I started wondering what I could do to make a difference this month. I have no personal experience with adopting from foster care, so what could I do to show my support of the foster care adoption during the month of November? For starters, absolutely anyone–regardless of personal experience with any form of adoption or lack thereof–can raise adoption awareness this month. This list of public activities that can make a genuine difference offered many excellent ideas. My family is already planning on purchasing and donating several of our favorite adoption books for kids to the local library and a few local grade schools. It’s a small step, but one that will hopefully inspire conversation–what better subject to discuss than that of a book that peaks a child’s interest? In essence, our family’s goal for this month is to celebrate adoption above and beyond the scope of what it means to our family, holding hope and honor for those who wait in foster care, internationally, and beyond to join a family.

Photo Credit.

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