By Jeff Wentworth
Guest Commentary  

November is National Adoption Awareness Month.

For many Texans, a month devoted to adoption awareness may have little or no significance, but for more than 6,000 Texas children, it is indeed a significant month.

These are children who are waiting and hoping to find a place in a permanent, loving home.  The 6,000 abused and neglected children are some of the more than 30,000 children for whom the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) has legal responsibility.

Most of the children are in foster or kinship care and are not waiting to be adopted.  For those who are available for adoption, the wait is long, agonizing and, far too often, fruitless.

Of the more than 6,000 children waiting to be adopted, about 60 percent of them are age 6 or older.  Unfortunately, the older the child is, the longer the wait.

To encourage Texans to consider the adoption of an older child, DFPS has launched a “Why Not Me?” campaign.  I am pleased that the money for the campaign comes from a federal grant awarded to Texas for increasing adoptions more than any other state in 2005.

You may read the profiles and see the photographs of some of these children at www.AdoptChildren.org, or you may call (800) 233-3405 for information.

The Web site includes brochures, fact sheets and other materials that will help you learn more about older children’s need for loving parents.  Regardless of their age, children need the support of a real family.  Without an adoptive family, children have no safety net, no place that they can actually call home, and no parent to turn to for comfort and advice.

Being the adoptive parent of an older child is not easy, but neither is being a birth parent.  Whether children arrive by birth or adoption, they don’t come with a trouble-free guarantee.

In 2007, 4,023 children were adopted by Texas families.  Of that number, 992 were in the San Antonio area, and 631 were in the Austin area.  Together, these two areas comprise the counties in Senate District 25.

I am proud that DFPS’ Region 8, the San Antonio area, had the highest number of adoptions, higher even than the state’s other metropolitan areas of Houston and Dallas.

If you are a responsible, patient adult who is ready for the challenge of child-rearing, I encourage you to contact DFPS and talk with someone about adoption or becoming a foster parent.

If you are ready to make that commitment, please call as soon as possible.  Somewhere in Texas, a child is waiting for a home, and it just might be yours.

Texas State Sen. Jeff Wentworth (R-San Antonio) represents District 25, which includes part of Bexar County. He can be reached via e-mail at jeff.wentworth@senate. state.tx.us.