James 1:27 (The Message)
26-27Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless (children without a home, added by Ronnie) and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.
On any given day in North America, nearly 600,000 children are in the foster care system, and more than 150,000 of them are available for adoption, just waiting for the right family to find them.
- There are 510,000 children in the U.S. foster care system; 129,000 of these children are available for adoption.
- More children become available for adoption each year than are adopted. In 2006, 79,000 children had parental rights terminated by the courts, yet only 51,000 were adopted.
- A child in foster care can wait up to five years to be adopted.
- The average age of the child waiting to be adopted from foster care is eight years old.
- The average number of months a child waiting to be adopted has been in foster care is 39 months.
- Each year, 20% of children (26,517 in 2006) exit foster care at age 18 without an adoptive family.
- According to a National Adoption Attitudes Survey commissioned by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, 63 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of adoption and 78 percent think more should be done to encourage adoption.
- Nearly 40 percent of American adults, or 81.5 million people, have considered adopting a child, according to the National Adoption Attitudes Survey. If just one in 500 of these adults adopted, every waiting child in foster care would have a permanent family.
NOTE: Statistical source is Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System; Department of Health & Human Services (January 2008), unless otherwise stipulated.