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AdoptWalk

Have you been touched by adoption?

I’ve known many amazing people in my life that have both been adopted, or adopted children themselves.

Jenna wrote about her family’s experiences earlier, and recently the author of Labours of Love got in touch with us to let us know about her inspiring new project.

With the publishing of Labours of Love: Canadians Talk About Adoption, I have begun a new journey in the Canadian adoption community. The numbers of children in Canada’s foster care system is about 100,000 and rising daily. Over 25,000 of these kids are currently available for adoption, ranging in ages from infants to teens. This seems so unnecessary to me, especially while the media pays an inordinate amount of attention to celebrity and international adoption.

I have decided to focus my efforts on domestic adoption in Canada , and am getting involved with the Adoption Council of Canada to assist in helping improve those statistics. It will take education, awareness, funding, and getting people who have been personally touched by adoption, and are passionate about the issue, to help us. These kids are our future, and if they are not given loving permanent homes, and families to rely on, they will ‘age out’ of the system, and thus will have less chances of a successful and happy future.

Labours of Love profiles 20 adoptive families from across the country, as well as adoption professionals, who for years have been advocating for change in Ontarios and Canadas adoption system. Their voices have lent themselves to a new report, Raising Expectations, that was released just this past August. It is the result of a year-long study ordered by the McGuinty government to study infertility and adoption ( as separate issues) in Ontario, with a view to accessibility and affordability. The 240 page document is incredibly detailed and thorough, and the recommendations on the adoption side are excellent!

It remains to be seen whether the government acts – and when.

In the meantime these kids are waiting , and we are going to act by holding the first annual 5k AdoptWalk in Port Credit, Ontario, this Sunday October 18, 2009. Going forward in 2010, this will be a national event to be held in every province on the same weekend. This year the funds raised will be divided between the Adoption Council of Canada and The Adoption Council of Ontario, all in efforts to help the adoption community and Canada’s Waiting Children .

We’d love to see you there, or have your support in donating to the walk! It will only take a little from all of us to help find these children what they desperately need – and deserve – a forever family.

Please think about it.

For more info see www.adoption.on.ca or be in touch with me at www.laboursoflove.ca

Deborah.

Do you plan on attending? Send us your photos and your own adoption stories

Tags: adoption, Deborah A. Brennan, Labours of Love: Canadians Talk About Adoption

About the author

Ashleigh is the Manager of Digital Development at Dundurn Press. She is a huge bibliophile who has hard time getting rid of any book, a technophile who always wants to know about the latest gadgets, and a francophile who can't speak French.