Celebrating National Adoption Month

CELEBRATING NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH -- (Extensions of Remarks - November 15, 2006)

* Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate November as National Adoption Month. Originating in Massachusetts in 1976 as National Adoption Week under Governor Michael Dukakis, the honor was celebrated nationally by President Ford in 1976 and then extended to the month of November in 1990. It is a time during which we celebrate the families who have shown their commitment to children in need by opening their homes and a time to promote awareness of the need to find permanent homes for our most vulnerable children.

* Permanency is important in the life of a child; with over 523,000 children in foster care, we must focus our attention on finding permanent, stable, and caring relationships for these children. Approximately 20 percent of the children in foster care have the ultimate end goal of adoption. This equals around 104,600 who are awaiting or working toward adoption. The need for quality, loving and permanent homes for these children is great. Children who age out of the foster care system are more likely to be homeless and more likely to end up in jail than their counterparts.

* The issue of safe and permanent homes is of particular concern to my district, the Seventh Congressional District of Illinois. The Seventh District has the highest percentage of kinship care providers in the entire United States. I hope that our efforts in the 110th Congress will promote permanency for these children and support them and their families.

* I urge organizations to continue their hard work advocating for adoption and permanency. Organizations such as the National Council for Adoption, Voice for Adoption, the Child Welfare League of America, the Children's Defense Fund, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, and the North American Council on Adoptable Children, just to name a few. Parents who adopt face many challenges and deserve our recognition and thanks. These families commit themselves to a child, emotionally, financially and mentally. The bonds they form are lifelong, and, most importantly, they positively affect the life of a child.

* Mr. Speaker, as John F. Kennedy once said, ``Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.'' We must make sure that all of our Nation's children have hope for their future. To do this, we must ensure them loving, stable, and caring environments. Adoptive parents provide this for thousands of children every year. I thank adoptive parents as well as the numerous organizations dedicated to helping promote permanency for their commitment and sacrifice.

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