November 16, 2014

National Adoption Month

This year’s National Adoption Month theme — “Promoting and Supporting Sibling Connections” — is a particularly profound one, and something we are so glad to see getting the recognition and awareness it deserves. Adopted children may have multiple types of siblings: ones born or adopted into the family, or birth siblings from either being raised with or adopted by their birth parents. Of course fostering a positive relationship with siblings at home is extremely important, but depending on what type of adoption you have, you may want to consider the relationship they have, or might want to have, with their birth siblings as well.

But what this month is truly seeking to address is the importance of keeping sibling groups together when adopting children. Can you imagine being separated from a sibling of yours, sent to live in different homes, during a time of particular trauma, instability, uncertainty, and fear? That happens to siblings more often than people know — and although many sibling groups are adopted together, it’s an important issue to address in the adoption world. It’s integral to the health and development of the children, and can have such a giant impact on their well being as they grow up and adjust to their new life.

This helpful infographic from Adopt Us Kids shows how many sibling groups are adopted each year, as well as the percentage of families open to adopting more than one child, children with disabilities, or children over the age of ten.

The importance of keeping siblings together in adoption is critical — many people may not understand the repercussions it can have on these kids to be separated from their families. Are you interested in spreading awareness? The National Adoption Month website has extremely valuable resources for connecting with others in the adoption community, as well as promoting the month and its message across social media platforms. There are lots of great media messages on their website, as well as information about event planning and raising awareness. We especially like this link to sample Facebook posts. Just copy and paste and you’re done! They’ve done all the hard work for us…all we have to do now is help spread the word!