November is a special month. Almost exactly a year ago, I was spending evenings on my laptop putting together this site. My wife and I had the idea that we wanted to give back and contribute to the community that we are part of - the fostadopt community. We felt like there were few dedicated resources for parents of Children of Trauma to share and support one another online. I work in Web Development and this seemed to be a good way to help out. My good friends at Brownrice Internet agreed to provide hosting so over a matter of two weeks in the evenings and weekends we knocked it out.

So one reason that November is special to me is because it is the anniversary of TraumaAdoption.org. On November 1, we will be one year old! It really doesn't seem that long.

The launch was planned for November 1. It wasn't an abitrary date. November is officially (in the United States) National Adoption Month.

November is National Adoption month, a month set aside to raise awareness about the adoption of children and youth from foster care.

This year's theme is:

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

There is a campaign of tv, radio, and print ads (like the one below) trying to get that idea across.

So we're getting ready to celebrate. I may give out more of the little cards I had made over the summer than I normally would. I'll certainly be talking about fostering and adopting more than I have in the past. We're thinking about other ways we can celebrate the community during the month and will share as we get closer to the date. It is so critical to these kids that the word gets out - THEY NEED PARENTS! In 2007 130,000 children were left waiting to be adopted and 496,000 childrent were in foster care. Only 51,000 kids were actually adopted.

So celebrate the month with us! Take a foster or adoptive parent out for dinner. Be a mentor to a kid in foster care. Learn more about becoming a foster parent through your local social services. And many thanks for visiting the site over the last year. We appreciate it.

Image Credit
Party Hats by Ced