National observance will call attention to need for adoptions

Saturday, November 15, is National Adoption Day. The nation will celebrate adoption and encourage more people to give children in foster care permanent families through adoption. The celebrations are part of a nationwide effort to call special attention to the 114,000 foster children waiting in the United States, including 13,000 in Georgia, and to celebrate all families that adopt.

As part of National Adoption Day, courts around the nation will be open on Saturday to finalize the adoptions of hundreds of children from foster care. In Georgia, Fulton and Bibb Counties join an unprecedented number of courts and community organizations coast-to-coast. In the effort, it is expected that thousands of foster care adoptions will be finalized as a result of National Adoption Day.

Since 1987, the number of children in foster care nationally has doubled, and the average time a child remains in foster care has lengthened to nearly three years. Each year, approximately 20,000 children in foster care age out of the system without ever being placed with a permanent family.

Nearly 40 percent of adults, or more than 80 million people, have considered adopting a child, according to a recent National Adoption Attitudes Survey funded by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. If just one in 500 of these adults adopt, all the 114,000 children in foster care waiting for adoption would have permanent families.

For more information about becoming a foster or adoptive parent, please call 1-877-210-KIDS or visit Georgia's waiting children online at www.myturnnow.com.