Release Date: Nov 10, 2008
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Summary:
All children deserve a loving, permanent home which is the motivation behind National Adoption Awareness Month.  The Children Services Division of Montgomery County Job & Family Services  actively encourages people in the community to open their hearts and homes to children waiting for forever families.  Some 70 children in Montgomery County are available for adoption.

"They are children who have entered foster care through no fault of their own, as victims of child abuse, neglect or abandonment and their parents' legal rights have been terminated by the courts," said Children Services Assistant Director Gayle Bullard.  "These children are growing up without a permanent family of their own and tragically, some will never be adopted and leave the system at age 18 without the support of a family." 

National Adoption Awareness Month, celebrated annually since 1990, works to increase the number of families willing to consider adoption and celebrates the unique joys of creating families through adoption.  More than 129,000 children in the U.S. foster care system are available for adoption.  In Montgomery County there is a great need for single or married people to adopt large sibling groups, teenagers and children with special needs. 

To find out more about adoption, attend a free information meeting at 6:30 p.m. on November 24 or December 8 at Children Services, 3304 N. Main St. in Dayton or call 937-224-KIDS.  Children waiting for adoption can be viewed online at www.mcohio.org/childrenservices.

Media contact:  Ann Stevens, public information coordinator, 225-5693.