National Adoption Month
National Adoption Month
November
Adoption – Adoption is the social, emotional, and legal process in which children who will not be raised by their birth parents become full and permanent legal members of another family while maintaining genetic and psychological connections to their birth family. (childwelfare.gov)
There are about 7 million people in the US who have been adopted. The average child waits for an adoptive family for more than 3 years. The average age of a waiting child is 8. Over 100,000 children in the US alone are waiting to be adopted. (can each one of these facts be in bubbles or graphics or something to stand out?)
During National Adoption month, we want to advocate for children who are waiting for their forever family, recognize the thousands of people who have been adopted, and bring attention to issues surrounding adoption.
There is a great need for adoptive families for children who are waiting.
We also want to recognize the paradox of adoption, hope and grief crashing together as one family is torn apart while another one is created.
“Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” James 1:27
James 1:27 is not a command, “[James is] not so much commanding us to do something as much as he is inviting us to be something – the kind of people who have been so deeply and intrinsically effected by the gospel within us that it begins to express itself in some pure and vivid and clear ways through us.” Jason Johnson
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Resources For Your Church
All resource links have links inside the pdf indicated by an underline. To access the link, simply click on the text that is underlined.
- Pray with us for children who are waiting in Delaware and Pennsylvania
- Pray each day this month for various issues around adoption
- One-page description of how to recognize NAM at your church
- Slides to use during your Sunday Services
Adoption Related Resources:
Why we should consider adoption
- A short video from Desiring God Ministries on how adoption mirrors God’s love for us
- An article, A Perspective on Why You Should Consider Adoption (from an adult adoptee).
- A couple shares about their story of adoption on CCEF Podcast
Listening to Voices of the Adoption Triad: Birth Mothers, Adoptees, and Adoptive Parents
- Birth Mothers: Leah Outten, Lisa Qualls
- Adoptees: Tori Hope Petersen, Brandi Ebersole, Cam Lee Small, Annika Marek-Barta, Keri Hope Richmond,
- Adoptive Parents : Jamie Finn, Jason Johnson, Peter Mutabazi,
Local Adoption Agencies Information Sessions:
Delaware agencies:
A Better Chance for Our Children (manages DFS adoptions)
Children and Families First
Children’s Choice
Adoptions from the Heart (infant)
Bethany Christian Services
Madison Adoption Assoc
Pennsylvania agencies:
Bethanna
Bethany
Children’s Choice
Madison
MAZI
All About Love
Waiting Children
Heart gallery Delaware
SWAN – Pennsylvania