National Adoption Day

Yesterday was National Adoption Day, celebrated every November. This year's focus was on the children in the foster care system and their need for permanent placement.

I found two groups working at the national level to insure that the best interests of adopted children are protected.

National Council For Adoption

North American Council on Adoptable Children

The National Council For Adoption lists their Adoption First Principles on their website. As grandparents who adopted our granddaughter this year, two of those principles deeply touched my heart. They were "Growing Up Adopted Is Healthy And Normal" and "Adoptive Parents Are The Real Parents".

Growing Up Adopted Is Healthy And Normal: Adoption is healthy, satisfying, and good for adopted persons, not an enduring challenge to identity and wholeness. The adopted person may have additional questions and curiosities to sort out, but adoption is not a psychological burden or pathology as some theorists treat it. Adoption is the way one joined one’s family, not a defining characteristic or lifelong process. Persons adopted as infants grow up as healthy and productive as people raised in their biological families. To the extent there can be a greater risk of emotional or behavioral problems for children adopted out of foster care at later ages, the correlation is not the result of being adopted, but rather of difficulties experienced prior to adoption, such as neglect or abuse. The vast majority of foster children make the transition into their adoptive families and grow up very successfully.



Adoptive Parents Are The Real Parents: The 'real' parents of the child who was adopted are the adoptive parents, because they are the ones who are legally and morally responsible for the child; they are the ones who parent. In general, law and society have appropriately treated adoptive parents the same as biological parents. In the best interests of children, we should continue to do so. The interests and well-being of adopted children are thoroughly intertwined with those of the adoptive family.


Being supportive of positive adoption policies at the national level goes beyond helping children in foster care, it should be made a component of all Pro Life campaigns. Making adoption an easier choice for pregnant women and keeping adoption support available for adoptive parents will impact the number of abortions chosen each year.

Peace, Love, and Light through Jesus the Christ!
Kevin (Cloud)