Dear Friends of Children and Our Agency,
As we all sit sweltering this summer, I am struck by how much time people spend talking about the season that isn't. When it is the summer, we can't wait for the cool weather. In the depths of a freezing New York winter, we wish for sunny spring. It seems to be human nature to look forward, and to wish for something that we don't have today.
In that case, how can we child advocates, who spend so much time focused on the needs of children, not see a parallel to the lives of waiting children? The figures change a little, depending on who is citing them, but there certainly appear to be more than 100,000 American children sitting in a foster care system somewhere in this country, trying to look forward, wishing for the biggest thing that they don't have today - a "forever" family.
The longer I do adoption work, the angrier I find myself getting, at that sorry state of affairs. How can it be, in a country of 300,000,000 people, that more than 100,000 children don't have something that they need more than vitamins, more than new shoes, more than a good teacher next school year? How can it be that there are no American adults to come forward and adopt these waiting children and youth?
This is not the same thing as hoping the weather will cool down. We know that there will be cooler weather coming up that we will enjoy. Waiting children, who age out of the foster care system without a permanent family at the rate of two an hour (according to at least one expert), can sit and hope for a forever family - but with no guarantee. It is no wonder that every year makes them more depressed and more worried.
Perhaps the reality is not that there are no interested families, but that they are out there and don't know how to start. We know that many people don't trust government - and what is adoption but a government-connected action. I also still talk to people who don't realize that singles can adopt, that non-traditional families are welcomed into the world of adoption, that you don't need to own your own home, that age is not a factor, that there is government help when you adopt older children. Perhaps you know someone who would consider adoption if just given a little encouragement.
Now is the time for all of us to encourage and educate the people around us about how important it is for children and youth to have a family for the rest of their lives - and how welcomed any interested people would be at the door of an adoption agency. Certainly our doors are wide open - in metro-New York City, in the Hudson Valley, and in the Capital District. We even have small posters that you can put up in your office or church. Just call the agency and ask for some to be sent to you.
If ever there was at time for us to do everything we can, it is now - in the heat of the summer - so that some of those 100,000 children will have something to look forward to when the weather turns cool.
The world of advocacy welcomes you!