Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Love conquers parental imperfections. Every time.

If you've been reading my blog over the last week or so, you may have seen the recent post I shared that was written by my friend Carly. If you haven't I'm going to toss the link up here so you can check it out later - because her emotional piece about her experience as a foster mom who had to say goodbye to her foster son is such a beautiful one and it's worth reading.

The timing couldn't have been more perfect for this opportunity to cross my path, to talk to you a bit about the AdoptUSKids program.

adoption, foster care, foster parenting, domestic adoption, family

The AdoptUSKids program is working to raise awareness about the number of children in the foster care programs across the United States today who are looking for their forever homes.

Since the program started in 2004 over 22,000 children have been placed into homes and officially adopted. Over 35,000 families have registered to adopt children, so there are more families being matched up with these children as we speak (read!).

However, there are currently 402,000 children in foster care across America, and approximately 102,00 of them are waiting to be adopted into families. About 23% of these children who are registered with the program were registered with one or more siblings.

Anyone who has a sibling knows how important these relationships are when you're a child. When you're a child in foster care and have only your sibling(s) to connect with, this is even more the case. A sibling relationship is often the only relationship that is a constant for the child from a young age.

As a social worker I've worked with many sets of foster siblings. Having each other as they switched homes, hoped for a permanent family, made constant adjustments ... all of these difficult transitions? Just a bit easier for them together.

I've listened to brothers and sisters talk about their foster parents and families and how critical having each other was to them as they adjusted to their new homes. New relationships. Sometimes just the constant of having someone to pick on and fight with was enough to help them ease into the change. Because we have to admit it - siblings fight sometimes. But as someone with a younger brother I can tell you that nobody is allowed to come near him or fight with him - except me. That bond is undeniable. Unbreakable.

AdoptUSKids wants to help keep children together with their siblings when they're placed in their forever homes.

If you're looking for information on how to foster or adopt, AdoptUSKids has all the information you need. There are so many pieces of misinformation floating around that the process appears confusing and intimidating from afar. Head over to the AdoptUSKids website to find out more on who CAN adopt, and what myths are out there deterring you for no reason!

You don't have to be perfect to be a parent.

Not a single parent is perfect. Not one of us. You don't have to be, either.

Consider bringing home YOUR forever children. Your life will change as much as theirs do.







Find out more about AdoptUSKids on social media.

AdoptUSKids on Facebook

AdoptUSKids on Twitter

* This post was written on behalf of AdoptUSKids. *

8 comments:

  1. Great post, Andrea. Love your perspective as a social worker.
    I hope this will encourage people to consider foster adoption.

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  2. What a lovely post! My mother worked for Child Welfare for a number of years, and my heart always broke when an adoption or placement would fall through. These kiddos need awesome people like you raising awareness and giving them a voice. Kudos my friend!

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  3. Beautiful piece. I am an only child and wished so hard for siblings. I love organizations like these bringing kids to parents that love and support them.

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  4. Both are awesome posts to promote awareness about a wonderful and important program. I learned a lot from the post, sharing it also.

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  5. Such an important issue and great post. I have a friend that decided to foster a 9 year old boy even if they already have 4 kids. Some families have big heart.

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  6. Great post! My brother and his wife fostered 3 siblings for several years and were eventually able to adopt them all. It's so important to keep them together.

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  7. Great post. After my many miscarriages my husband and I have thought about adoption and we are still planning on adopting his nephew but our biggest hurdle is the money.. Right now our finances just won't let us do it.. hopefully soon as our nephew is now 11 and it won't be long before he will be too old. The biggest thing is we are supporting him over in Africa but still have to prove that we can support him and spend all the money to get him here.

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  8. I love this post. My mom actually wanted to become a foster mom however I think our situation and house is a bit too small for that at the moment but it's her dream. Around this time of the year theres so many programs and things like this we all try to give to keeps us humble and realized how blessed we are.

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