Madam Speaker, I rise today on the eve of National Adoption Day to recognize those American families that open their hearts and homes to our most vulnerable children and teenagers.
There are currently 114,000 children in foster care who need adoptive homes. Many of these children were victims of abuse, neglect, or abandonment, and most will wait at least five years and will move at least three times before they are adopted. One in five will never be adopted. In the face of these disheartening statistics, we must celebrate those parents who choose to adopt and provide a loving home to these children and encourage the adoption of more children from foster care.
In November 2000, hundreds of lawyers, child advocates, state foster care agencies, and courts, worked together to finalize hundreds of foster care adoptions across the country as part of National Adoption Day. Since then, National Adoption Day has grown as thousands of new families have come together.
I am proud that Montgomery County, Maryland, which is in my Congressional District, has finalized seven adoptions this month and thirty so far this year. In one family, two sisters, Jerry and Beverly Wright, have adopted five children, and, with their biological children, now have ten children safe and well-cared-for in their home. I congratulate them, and all the happy and thriving families that include adopted children.