The Gift of Family: AdoptUSKids

Before taking on the glamorous life of a mom, freelance writer and blogger (she says, dripping with sarcasm), I was a social worker for our county's Children Youth and Family services. After completing my BSW (bachelor's in social work) from West Chester University, I went on to work for 4 years as a CYF caseworker.

I can't begin to tell you how it changed my life.

CYF opened my eyes to the world. It changed the way I looked at family units, relationships, working, race, gender and how our society works. I saw things, heard things and experienced things that would blow your mind. Sad things, mean things, scary things. Even after my time with CYF, I'm still amazed at the mistreatment of children. 

For every difficult thing I experienced, I also experienced amazing things. I saw beautiful stories of provision, of resiliency, of love, of hardship, of sacrifice. I saw the effort mother's made to provide for their children. I saw the generous hearts of our community as they donated to families in need. I saw wounded hearts make mental, physical and emotional progress. 

And of the many things I witnessed, there was nothing more amazing than the creation of a new family through Foster Care and Adoption.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AdoptUSKids and the Ad Council work together to spread the word encouraging foster care and adoption. Since the launch of their initial campaign in 2004, more than 22,000 children who were once photo-listed on the AdoptUSKids website are now with their adoptive families and over 35,000 families have registered to adopt through AdoptUSKids.

HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

But, there is still a long road ahead of us. There are currently 402,000 children in the foster care system in the United States of America and nearly 102,000 children (under 18 years of age) waiting for adoption. Approximately 23% of children and youth actively photolisted on the AdoptUSKids website for placement in adoptive homes were registered with one or more siblings. Sibling relationships are often the longest-lasting relationships for children in foster care.

We want to spread the word about the importance of foster care and adoption. Have you considered fostering or adopting? Consider giving the gift of family to a child - or a set of siblings - this coming year.



For more information about adoption, or about becoming an adoptive parent to a child from foster care, please visit www.AdoptUSKids.org or visit the campaign’s communities on Facebook and Twitter. 

Disclosure: this is part of a non-profit campaign with the Ad Council. I was in no way compensated for this post. I wanted to share this because I believe it is an important cause!