Dear Editor,

Each Thanksgiving, we gather together to give thanks for our families and the good things in life. For thousands of children in foster care, this cherished celebration is just a dream.

In the United States, there are more than 104,000 children in foster care who need permanent, loving families, and many of these children have been waiting years to be adopted. In the State of Georgia alone, approximately 250 children are waiting to find families they can call their own.

But there is hope. November is National Adoption Month. The major goal of National Adoption Month is to support efforts to recruit and retain foster and adoptive families, as well as to increase public awareness about children needing adoptive homes. On the third Saturday of the month, National Adoption Day is celebrated. It is an event where an unprecedented number of courts and community organizations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia open their doors to finalize the adoptions of thousands of children from foster care and to celebrate all families that adopt.

As we celebrate National Adoption Month and begin to look toward the holiday season, we need to remember the children who do not have an adoptive family who will have no home to call their own this Christmas. Any community members in Upson, Pike or surrounding counties who have questions about what it means to become a Foster or Adoptive Family with the Department of Family and Children Services are invited to attend an Orientation session on Tuesday, Nov. 27, at First Baptist Church of Thomaston. We will meet in the Fellowship Hall behind the church at 5:30 p.m. If you have questions or need directions, please contact Andrea Wolverton at acwoIverton@dhr.state.ga.us or 770-550-5621.

For an information packet, please call 1-877-210-KIDS. Thank you for helping us find permanent, loving families for these waiting children. You can view Georgia’s waiting children online by visiting www.itsmyturnnowga.com or www.wednesdayschildga.com.

Sincerely,

LaResa Price

County Director

Upson and Pike County DFCS