During November which is National Adoption Month, families across Nebraska will finalize their adoption of a child, teenager or sibling group from foster care either on or near National Adoption Day, November 19. Following tradition, many judges open their courthouse on that Saturday before Thanksgiving to complete adoptions and bring smiles to the faces of children and adults alike. In total this November, nonprofit KVC Nebraska is helping to facilitate the adoptions of nearly 33 children in the Omaha area, Lincoln and other parts of Nebraska.

More than 100,000 U.S. children in foster care waiting to find permanent, loving families. Nebraskan children waiting for adoption can be viewed online at www.nebraskaheartgallery.org, and children served by KVC Nebraska can be viewed at http://adoption.kvc.org. The profiles include photos, bios and, in some cases, videos.

Angelica

One happy story is that of Angelica, a teenager who was in foster care and wanted an adoptive family with both a mom and a dad to love her. Thanks to the persistence of Angelica’s KVC staff, she met the perfect match. Nicole and Matt Larson had recently completed foster parent training and felt Angelica made a great addition to their family. Angelica became a permanent part of the Larson family this fall. Read the full story of how Angelica found a permanent home in this blog post.

KVC Nebraska is a private, nonprofit organization that provides child welfare services for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) Omaha metro, Lincoln metro, Northern and Central regions, providing case management, foster care, foster to adopt, family preservation and extended family home training for individuals with developmental and/or intellectual disabilities services as the largest child-placing agency in the state of Nebraska.

KVC Health Systems, a nonprofit child welfare and behavioral healthcare organization headquartered in Olathe, is the parent organization to KVC Nebraska. Since 2005, the organization has matched more than 3,385 children nationwide with adoptive families. The agency has also completed construction of the new KVC Institute for Health Systems Innovation in Olathe, Kan. which includes a high-tech Interactive Family and Adoption Center. To KVC’s knowledge, this is the first and only center of its kind devoted to matching thousands more children in foster care with adoptive families using video recording equipment, teleconferencing and social media. Learn more at www.kvc.org/institute.

In Nebraska last year, there were 32,276 reports of child abuse and neglect. Currently there are:

• More than 4,371 children in foster care
• Appx. 100 children waiting to be adopted. Many of these children are eight years and older, members of a sibling group, and/or have special needs.

According to AdoptUSKids, “Adopting a child from foster care is a great way to help a child while growing your family. Children enter foster care through no fault of their own, because they have been abused, neglected or abandoned. These children are in the temporary custody of the state while their birth parents are given the opportunity to complete services that will allow the children to be returned to them if it is in the children’s best interest.”

“Just more than half of children who go into foster care return to their birth families. For children who become available for adoption, many are adopted by a relative or their foster parents.

Visit www.kvc.org/NAM to learn more about National Adoption Month and visit our foster care page to learn more about foster and foster to adopt services.