Pictured above: Children who need loving adoptive families. Meet the children at adoption.kvc.org or adoptuskids.org.

There are over 122,000 children and teens in foster care in the U.S. who need loving, permanent forever families and nearly 900 in Kansas. These are children who have experienced abuse, neglect or other serious family challenges. On November 20, National Adoption Day, which is the Saturday before Thanksgiving, courthouses across the country will open to help families finalize their adoptions and grow in love.

This year, KVC Kansas has facilitated 167 children’s adoptions, and this year reached the milestone of 5,000 total children’s adoptions in our agency’s history. We will be finalizing 37 children’s adoptions throughout the month of November and 29 on National Adoption Day.

Interested in adopting? Click here to meet the youth currently waiting for their Forever Families!

Meet Youth Waiting for Families

View profiles of children who need to be adopted at adoption.kvc.org and adoptuskids.org. The profiles include photos, bios and, in many cases, videos.

The theme of this year’s National Adoption Month is “Every Conversation Matters“, which highlights the importance of listening to what a young person has to say, what their goals are, and how they feel about adoption, as well as creating an environment where they can be honest and ask questions. Youth are the experts of their own lives, so this theme lets them partner with caregivers in permanency planning and make decisions about their life.

According to the most recent AFCARS report, of the 122,000 children and youth waiting to be adopted:

• 52 percent are male
• 48 percent are female
• 22 percent are African American
• 22 percent are Hispanic
• 44 percent are white
• The average age is eight years old
• 11 percent are between 15 and 18 years old
• Average time in foster care is 31 months

KVC’s adoption work is done in partnership with the Kansas Department for Children and Families and Adopt KS Kids.

Families Find New Ways to Celebrate Despite COVID-19

Families and KVC staff have been taking new approaches to celebrate families who adopted. In Kansas, for example, families are holding car parades, drive-in movies, raffles and more. Children’s adoption finalizations are still able to happen with judges using video conferencing.  

Also, we’d like to give a big thank you to AETNA for a recent donation of $4k for our adoption celebrations!

Interested in adopting? Click here to meet the youth currently waiting for their Forever Families!