As President, of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and owner of the Adoption & Surrogacy Law Center, I wish you a very happy, meaningful and fruitful National Adoption Month. As the events unfold this month in our city and region, we all can be inspired by each other and by the one out of three families touched by adoption.
History of National Adoption Month
For over two decades, National Adoption Month has been celebrated across the country. Many national; state; local agencies; and foster, kinship care, and adoptive family groups will arrange programs, events, and activities during the month of November to raise awareness for the hundreds of thousands of children and youth in foster care who are waiting for permanent families.
- 1976 Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis announced an Adoption Week in his state to promote awareness of the need for adoptive families for children in foster care.
- 1984 President Ronald Reagan proclaimed the first National Adoption Week.
- 1995 President Bill Clinton expanded Adoption Awareness Week to the entire month of November.
- 1998 President Bill Clinton directed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop a plan to expand the use of the Internet as a tool to find homes for children waiting to be adopted from foster care.
- 2008 President George W. Bush provided an explanation of National Adoption Month in Spanish.
For small ways to celebrate, drop a kind note to prospective adoptive parents going through the adoption process, provide a thoughtful gift to a child in foster care, say “thank you” to a foster or adoptive parent, or give a book about adoption to someone special just to raise awareness – there are hundreds of adoption books for children and adults!
For bigger ideas about how to celebrate National Adoption Month, the Children’s Bureau of U.S. Health and Human Services has a terrific social media toolkit found here: https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/adoption/nam/about/
And the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute has a list of events and well-vetted ideas about impactful ways to celebrate the month or National Adoption Day (November 19, 2016) events in your community at http://www.ccainstitute.org/programs/view/national-adoption-day-engage.
To learn more about adoption, visit the Adoption & Surrogacy Law Center at www.virginia-adoption-attorney.com .
This article provides general information only. Article provided by Colleen M. Quinn, Esq.