Chris grew up in foster care.

Following a six-week internship with Senators and Congressmen through the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, this is what he said:

“If you were considering companies to invest in, you would not choose a company that was … almost guaranteed to fail. But you have stepped up and made that very investment.”

He was talking about the personal, financial and emotional investment in children in foster care – children who come from circumstances that strip them of opportunities to learn and grow into their potential.

They’ve missed out on team sports (who would pay for their uniforms, or drive the car pool, or cheer for them from the sidelines?). They have likely moved from one school to another, so they’ve lost the chance to develop lasting relationships with teachers, coaches and friends.

But there are people who take the risks – people who do in fact invest in the dreams of those young people.

Here at The Adoption Exchange last fiscal year families invested in the futures of 393 children from foster care through adopting. Hundreds volunteered their time, contributed financially, or dedicated their professional skills to help make the dreams of those children come true.

Twenty-eight years ago Mary called to volunteer the services of her daughter’s Brownie troop.

That little group of girls stuffed, licked and stamped envelopes every month to help us mail notices of waiting children to newspapers around the region.

Since then, we have been calling her.

When the city gave us 100 impounded bicycles to pass along to children, we had bicycles lining every hallway in our office. So we called Mary. She organized the project from start to finish, and put smiles on 100 little faces.

The day we discovered that stamps slid right off our Fantasy Ball invitations and we couldn’t afford to print new ones, we called Mary. She came over with a glue gun and solved the problem.

Yesterday Mary was among the 20+ volunteers at our adoption party.

These parties are fun. And they are overwhelming, also. After months of looking at video tapes and photographs, prospective parents come face-to-face with waiting children and their social workers. Everyone is a little stiff at first. A lot is at stake for the children, the parents, and for the caseworkers too.

Yesterday Mary helped prospective families from Idaho, Texas, Kansas, Wyoming and Colorado get oriented in the first, sometimes awkward, minutes as they found ways to interact with social workers and waiting children.

Click here to view photos from The Adoption Exchange’s annual adoption party at White Fence Farm

Pride, excitement, and tenderness pervaded their conversation, as their mutual respect grew.

Then, a few minutes later, they were on their separate ways back to work. Each had obligations to meet before the end of their work days and what obviously are the most meaningful things in their lives – their families.

One dad said, “A little child enters your life and fills a special place in your heart. A place you never even knew was empty!”

Home is not where you’re from.

Home is where you feel wanted.

Thanks to you 6,416 children served by The Adoption Exchange are celebrating the holidays this year where they feel wanted and loved.

They’re home.

Holidays and birthdays are celebrated differently in different families. For example, many children tell their adoptive parents that they’ve never had a birthday cake – and certainly not one with their own name on it.

Sarah’s first Thanksgiving in her new family was quite an experience. When she saw her mom take a gigantic bird out of the refrigerator and prepare it for the oven, her eyes got wide and she said, “I’m not eating THAT!”

Well, the meal was prepared, the turkey carved, and the family engaged in a traditional sort of American process of eating from the bountiful harvest, talking, telling stories and sharing plans.

The experience was served up with love and hope and gratitude.

Later that day Sarah made a new proclamation. “I’m going to eat turkey the rest of my life,” she said.

If something needs fixing, we usually want to speak up. Or do something.

I can remember being told that our actions speak louder than our words. What we do lasts longer than what we say. Our hands and feet speak loudly and forcefully.


About 114,000 children in the United States foster care system are waiting for families.

Not everyone adopts. But every one of us can do something to keep a child safe, to give a child a loving family. And if we don’t do something, who will?

Angels often come to The Adoption Exchange disguised as volunteers. No sandals or robes or strikes of lightening. Just ordinary people. When asked why he dedicated so many hours of his personal time, Bob simply said, “It is the right thing to do.”

Hundreds of people do the right thing for children week after week. There are volunteer opportunities in any of our offices. Click here to learn more!

According to Demitrius, the best thing about his adoptive family is “having someone to care about me and love me.”

Most 14 year old boys take it for granted, which is how it should be.

Many thousands of American children have never known the feeling.

• 49,500 Youth emancipate from foster care without permanent families.
• $1,650 Our costs to provide adoption recruitment for one child/youth.
• 1 Number of people it takes to change the future for a child.

At the end of the fiscal year we count things in order to be ready for the auditor.

David is a CPA, an adoptive dad with a great sense of humor, and a Board member. He knows all about numbers. Once when I was worried about the scarcity of dollars, he reminded me that when I look at an audit report I need to think about two bottom lines. One is the dollars. And the other bottom line is the impact of our work with children and families.

Some of the numbers are very inspiring.

Last fiscal year at The Adoption Exchange 478 volunteers contributed 13,896 hours of time to help give vulnerable children a future.

Larry says he is a better dad because of his involvement. Pam, who has never said no to anything she’s been asked to do, said “How could I say no?! The children need us all.”

Joe’s an outgoing fellow. Always smiling. But he appeared to be taking a recent adoption party pretty seriously. Families and children had gathered for our annual summer event to play and get acquainted. “Oh, these kids need homes,” he said.

Well, volunteers helped make that happen for 457 children last year.

Thank you Joe. Thanks Larry and Pam. Thank you David. And many thanks to all of the parents and volunteers and adoption professionals for holding the children in your hearts.

Buddy has always made it a point to see to it that his adopted son stayed in touch with his brother, who was not adopted. Buddy has moved with the Department of Defense to various teaching positions around the globe. He used video tapes, telephone, and Skype. The boys spent vacation time together as they were growing up.

Once the decision was made not to place the boys in the same family, I imagine they were in as frequent communication as they would have been if they’d been in foster or adoptive homes in the same city.

According to the International Herald Tribune (July 19, 2004), if you pull into the drive-up window of a McDonald’s near Cape Girardeau, MO, you’ll get fast, friendly service, even though the person who takes your order is not in the restaurant….or even in the state of Missouri. The order taker is in a call center in Colorado Springs, CO, nearly 1,000 miles away.

And we worry about how a child living in one location can stay in touch with siblings in another?!