Long to Belong

Tate Wright | May 22, 2020 

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The Need

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' most recent report, there are over 400,000 children in the foster care system right now. In 2018, almost 690,000 children spent time in the foster care system. 125,000 of these children are waiting and ready to be adopted. Nearly 1 in 5 of these children, 71,000, are waiting to be adopted after their parents' rights were terminated due to various reasons. Lastly, in this year's report, more than 17,000 aged out of foster care without permanent families, increasing their likelihood to experience homelessness, unemployment, and incarceration at some point during their lifetime. 

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Adopting From Foster Care 

When considering adoption, adopting from foster care might not be the first thing to come to mind. Many children have experienced abuse, neglect, abandonment, and sometimes all three. Many have special needs due to prenatal and early developmental problems. Due to these issues, many parents feel that they do not have the ability, or desire, to take on these challenges in order to help these children live happy and successful lives. These children have not experienced what it feels like to have a stable and loving environment. They long for consistency and permanency that is restricted when children are moved from home to home, sometimes multiple times in the same year. 

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The Reality 

All of us need stability in our lives. We long to feel like we belong to someone and to something. We want to feel loved. Lacking these connections can greatly impact the way we are able to function and progress as human beings. Many Americans falsely believe that because a child is in the foster care system and has a roof over their head, all of their needs are being met. In reality, a child needs much more than this to grow into the person they can become, and truthfully many people have a greater capacity than they believe to care for and even adopt a foster child. In many cases, the State will reimburse expenses for adopting children from foster care, which may be due to the fact that adopting a child from foster care costs less money than adopting a new born baby. As you can see, these kids need our help.

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Join Us 

Join us in whatever capacity you can. Whether housing or adopting a child from foster care, you can help change the rest of their life. At DELIVEЯ, we seek to help these children find stable homes and improve their current situations. Contact us if you think you can house or adopt a child, or click to donate down below. 

 

"To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." - Dr. Seuss

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