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November is National Adoption Awareness Month, and it's never too early or too late to get started with plans to organize or participate in activities. Find ideas for every day of the month, working with media, and planning an event.

Continue reading National Adoption Awareness Month

This listing of ideas provides a lot of great suggestions! It seems sad to me, however, that I had not heard of the existence of this month until I came upon this site, which leads me to believe that we still have a long way to go to try to promote awareness and action. Although this is election time in many states, I haven't heard anyone cite adoption/foster care reform as an issue of concern, although many are, as usual in recent years, citing family values, welfare and public education reform. Why is this? I guess this question is rhetorical, but it does bother me that, even though there is acknowledgement that the family units in the US are much more diverse than they used to be (there are families parented by gay and lesbian couples, multi-racial, mult-cultural families, single parent families, and of course, adoptive families of every shape, size, type, color, etc.). Since there are SO many adoptees and adoptive families, and even more critically, unadopted and un-fostered children in the country, it seems we really need to up the awareness of them in our government and start to make sure they are taken care of, represented and spoken for.

Also in this article was the mention of National Adoption Day, which I think is pretty amazing, and I wonder if there are any adoptees out there or adoptive families that finalized their adoption on that day, and what it has meant for you. It seems like it would be a special and exciting day to celebrate the expansion of your family and the beginning of a long life.

I think this month is a great opportunity for women. Not only is it National Adoption Awareness month, but it is also Breast Cancer Awareness month. Since both these issues directly affect women and mothers, both first and adoptive and all those in between and surrounding, I think it presents a great opportunity for them to stand up and advocate for their own emotional and physical health. I know there are many women out there that are adoptive moms or first moms and have been affected by breast cancer, and I wonder what interesting ways we could combine these two important issues to invoke change during this month.