National Adoption Month 2020: Quotes On Family And Adoption

November is National Adoption Month, a time to raise awareness about the need for thousands of children to be adopted from foster care.

During this month, organizations collaborate to help promote the adoption of youth into permanent families, giving young people a chance to have a loving home. It also allows adoptive parents to expand their families.

"During National Adoption Month, we recognize birth families who make the difficult decision to place their children up for adoption, commend foster parents who care for children from different backgrounds, and celebrate adoptive parents who open their families to those children in need," the Presidential Proclamation from the White House said.

The history of this important month began with the first-ever Adoption Week in Massachusetts in 1976. In 1995, President Bill Clinton broadened the week to a month, proclaiming November as National Adoption Month.

For National Adoption Month 2020, here are some quotes to celebrate the beauty of adoption and family, courtesy of Good Reads, Adoption-Beyond and Adoption.com.

• "Adoption was a bumpy ride – very bumpy. But God, was it worth the fight." — Mariska Hargitay
• "Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life." — Jodi Picoult
• "My life has been shaped by the decision two people made over 24 years ago. They decided to adopt a child. They got me, and I got a chance at the kind of life all children deserve. ” — Karen Fowler
• “ Anyone who ever wondered how much they could love a child who did not spring from their own loins, know this: it is the same. The feeling of love is so profound, it's incredible and surprising." — Nia Vardalos
• "Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother." — Oprah Winfrey
• "Adoption is not the call to have the perfect, rosy family. It is the call to give love, mercy, and patience." — Hope for Orphans
• "Somehow destiny comes into play. These children end up with you and you end up with them. It's something quite magical." — Nicole Kidman
• "There are times when the adoption process is exhausting and painful and makes you want to scream. But, I am told, so does childbirth." — Scott Simon
• "I learned that you need not be born into a family to be loved by one," — Lisa Wingate
• "She could not, she had thought as she bent to kiss the baby's flushed cheek, have loved this child more if it had come from her own flesh." — Celeste Ng