National Adoption Day, November 21, 2020
Op-Ed: Tricia Coates, President and CEO of Lund
Today, 110 Vermont children in foster care are waiting to be adopted.
Their names and their pictures hang on our office walls at Lund. We carry their images with us every day as we do the careful work of connecting these children with their forever adoptive families.
We picture Jason. By the time Jason was five, he had already lived in three foster homes. The foster families were always welcoming, but Jason went to bed every night worried that any day he could be moved to another family, another neighborhood, another school. His anxiety grew, and he acted out in school and with his foster parents.
On the day his adoption was complete, Jason’s new Mom baked him a cake that said, “Welcome home, Jason!” Over time, his anxiety diminished, and he was able to fully engage in school and fully enjoy his relationships with his new family.
Permanency means no more last minute moves to a new foster family. No more waiting to find out if the home you are in will be your forever family and will commit to your adoption. Permanency has the power to transform lives. For children who have already experienced the trauma of leaving their family of origin behind and who have lived through the uncertainty of foster care, permanency offers security and confidence in the future.
A prominent 2019 study compared outcomes of two siblings in foster care where one was adopted and the other was not. The foster sibling who was adopted “tended to have considerably better outcomes in adult age in educational achievement, income, criminality, disability, and suicidality.” (“Outcomes in adulthood of adoption after long-term foster care: A sibling study,” Hjern, 2019)
The State of Vermont has made a strong commitment to finding adoptive families for children in foster care for this very reason: prevention. Project Family, a 20 year partnership between Lund and the State of Vermont, is committed to finding forever families for children in foster care who are legally freed for adoption.
In 2019, 335 adoptions took place in Vermont. 246 of those adoptions were of children who had been involved with the Department of Children and Families. 246 children now have a better chance at a strong and healthy future.
This past Saturday, we celebrated National Adoption Day and honored the incredible faith and generosity of families who welcome children into their homes and lives. And everyday, we think about the 150,000 children in foster care nationwide who are waiting for permanent families.
And we think of the faces on our office walls, the 110 young Vermonters waiting for their forever families.
For more information about adoption, Project Family, and Lund’s work to support adoptive families, please connect with us at www.lundvt.org
