November is National Adoption Month and the Saturday before Thanksgiving, November 21st, is National Adoption Day. In Honor of that day, Roanoke County Judge Phillip Trompeter made a number of adoptions “final” and local Departments of Social Services, along with private providers held a celebration at Andrew Lewis Middle School in Salem.
“As we approach the holidays and everyone is thinking about being with their families, it’s a good time to think of children who don’t have a permanent family,” says Adoption Supervisor Kelly Bennett of DePaul Community Resources, which specializes in finding homes for foster children.
The Adoption Day Celebration was marked by a finalization ceremony at the Roanoke County Courthouse. Actors including some children who have been adopted, performed a play entitled “They Chose Me,” which highlights the emotions children experience during the adoption process. The Play was followed by lunch, children’s games and family activities.
It is estimated that there are currently more than 6,600 children in Virginia’s foster care system. More than 1,400 of these children are waiting for adoption. National Adoption Day is a collective national effort to raise awareness of the 129,000 children in foster care waiting to find permanent families. For the last eight years, National Adoption Day has made the dreams of thousands of children come true by working with courts, judges, attorneys, adoption professionals, child welfare agencies and advocates to finalize adoptions and find permanent, loving homes for children in foster care.
For more information about National Adoption Day, visit www.nationaladoptionday.org. For more information on adopting a child through DePaul Community Resources, please go to www.depaulcr.org.
