NOVEMBER: National Adoption Month
November is “National Adoption Month”! Please take the time to learn more about the history of this event and the importance of promoting adoption as a loving choice. For this month’s Event-In-A-Box, Students for Life of America provides you with information and resources to actively promote Adoption Awareness!
Thank you for your continuing to fight for LIFE!
History of National Adoption Month
In 1976, the “Adoption Week” was declared in Massachusetts. Governor Michael Dukakis hailed the week as a time to raise awareness of adoption and to emphasize the demand for adoptive families for foster care children. This initiative gained national attention when President Gerald Ford also joined in support of Adoption Week. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan officially announced National Adoption Week, and it was then later expanded to an entire month by President Bill Clinton in 1995.
Adoption: A loving choice
Children need to be protected, loved, and cared for throughout their lives- both in the womb and in the world. As we enter the month of November, we recognize adoption as a loving option for birthparents that are not yet ready or able to be the parent that a child needs and deserves. At this time, we once again recognize the sacrifices of birthparents and adoptive families in their decisions to provide a hopeful future for their children.
Adoption has changed throughout the years. Now, birthparents have greater opportunities to choose who will adopt their child, and they may even receive legal help and a support system throughout the adoption process. Moreover, birthparents can determine the amount of contact that they wish to receive following the adoption.
While adoption can be a difficult decision for any parent, it is a loving solution for both the biological and adoptive parents. Throughout National Adoption Month, please promote adoption awareness and continue to support birthparents, adoptive families, and adopted children.
EVENT-IN-A-BOX: What can you DO?
For more ADOPTION events and flyers, check out “Adoption, Another Option” at http://studentsforlife.org/resources/organize-an-event/adoption/ .
SOURCES
“Adoption Celebrities: Well-Known Adopted Persons, Birth Parents & Adoptive Parents.” Retrived from <http://celebrities.adoption.com/>
Carrie Craft. “History of National Adoption Month” Retrieved from <http://adoption.about.com/od/adopting/a/historyofnam.htm>
“History of National Adoption Month” Retrieved from <http://www.childwelfare.gov/adoption/nam/about/history.cfm>
“National Adoption Month” Retrieved from <http://national-adoption-month.adoption.com/>
National Council for Adoption. (2007). Adoption Factbook IV. Sterling, VA: PMR Printing Company, Inc.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2009). Adoption USA: A chartbook based on the 2007 National Survey of adoptive parents. Retrieved from <http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/09/nsap/chartbook/index.cfm>
