Recognizing National Adoption Month

Floor Speech

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Mr. SPANO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call attention to National Adoption Month.

On any given day in our country, there are 440,000 children in the foster care system, most for 2 to 5 years. This holiday season, I encourage you to open your heart to the possibility of adopting a child. As an adoption attorney, I can personally testify that you can give no greater gift to a child without a home than the security of a parent.

Alternatively, foster care may be a better option for you. My family had the joy of fostering four beautiful children over a 2-year period and simultaneously gave their birth parents the chance to receive help to overcome problems that led to their children's removal from their home.

Tampa Bay is blessed to have the Gladney Center for Adoption, Catholic Charities Adoption Services, Florida Baptist Children's Homes, Heart of Adoptions Alliance, and others on the front lines of this issue.

This National Adoption Month, think of these kids as you sit at your Thanksgiving table, when you shop for Christmas, and, above all, when you consider growing your family. They need us.

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