Foster care

By now, you’ve no doubt seen the love and support we’re sharing this month in celebration of Pride. Perhaps you’ve wondered why an open adoption agency chooses to participate and recognize our LGBTQ brothers and sisters.

We raise our voices and celebrate LGBTQ families because our work is not done until more LGBTQ families are able to freely and openly welcome adoptive foster care children into their hearts and homes. Our work is not done until more LGBTQ families can adopt without discrimination or fear.

May is National Foster Care Month. It’s a time to acknowledge awesome foster parents, the work of foster care professionals and the many, many others who help the nearly 430,000 children in the foster care system.

It’s also time to be real. In May, we’ll shine a light on the failures and opportunities in that same foster care system. #FosterFacts cannot be ignored. The more than 20,000 children aging out of foster care without permanent families every year cannot be ignored.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, which gives people across the country the opportunity to speak out, connect and raise awareness of an often difficult and uncomfortable topic.

Sexual assault has touched so many lives. We see it in the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, and many of us see it in our day-to-day lives.

But we don’t often see the impact on one of our country’s most vulnerable populations: foster kids.

Sexual assault statistics in the U.S. are grim.

There’s this little thing that’s been eating away at the corner of my conscience for weeks, maybe months now.