On adoption
To the Budgeteer:
November is National Adoption Month, and it serves as a valuable reminder of how important it is to find permanent homes for children waiting to be adopted.
While most recent national attention has focused on international adoptions, especially those of celebrities, it is important that we don't lose sight of the children in our own communities waiting for the love and permanency they deserve.
Right here in Minnesota, hundreds of children are waiting in foster care for the right adoptive families. Do you know that more than one-third of Americans have considered adoption, but only two percent have actually gone on to become adoptive parents? Why don't they take that next step?
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Many potential adoptive parents mistakenly believe that in order to adopt they must make a lot of money, own their own home and be young and married. However, these common myths are just that - myths. What's really required to become an adoptive parent is something quite different.
Adoptive parents need to be able to:
- Provide a warm, caring and nurturing home
- Possess the skills and patience to work with children
- Have a lifestyle with the flexibility, time and focus to create strong family stability
- Embrace adoption as a lifelong commitment
Through adoption, you have the ability to provide one of these children the thing they want most - a place to call home.
The Rural Expansion of Adoptive Communities and Homes (REACH) Project can help you as you consider becoming an adoptive parent. REACH is a federally-funded project that works to increase the number of adoptions of children waiting in foster care throughout rural Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin.
For more information about the REACH Project and how you can give a child roots to grow in a forever family, please call (866) 79-REACH or visit www.adoptinfo.org .
Jan Hoppe
Project Director, The REACH Project
