[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 170 (Monday, November 5, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13766-S13767]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         NATIONAL ADOPTION DAY

  Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I wish to acknowledge National Adoption 
Awareness Month and National Adoption Day on Nov. 17, 2007. With over 
114,000 children available for adoption out of the U.S. foster care 
system, I think it is crucial to celebrate those lawyers, social 
workers, officials and, most importantly, parents who help many 
children move from foster homes to adoptive families.
  Adoption has personally touched my life this year as two new children 
have been welcomed as members of my family. My son Brendan and his wife 
Jana recently adopted Trualem, age 11, and Peneal, age 8, from 
Ethiopia. I am now a proud grandfather of five, and our family is 
larger and richer with them in it.

[[Page S13767]]

  National Adoption Day was started in 2000 by the Alliance for 
Children's Rights, the Freddie Mac Foundation, and the Dave Thomas 
Foundation for Adoption and helped complete foster care adoptions in 
nine jurisdictions in its first year. National Adoption Day has quickly 
grown since that time. In 2006, a milestone was surpassed, as National 
Adoption Day was celebrated in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, 
and Puerto Rico for the first time. In total last year, over 3,300 
adoptions were finalized on National Adoption Day.
  I am committed to assisting children in the United States to find 
stable, loving, and permanent homes. Additionally, I support the goals 
of National Adoption Day to encourage others to adopt children from 
foster care, to build stronger ties between local adoption agencies, 
courts, and adoption advocacy organizations, and to continue to 
research and learn more about families wanting to adopt and the 
children waiting to be adopted.
  I am proud that Members of the Senate continue to support ways to 
make adoption easier and more affordable. Since the cost of adoption 
can be very high, we ought to do what we can to lessen this initial 
burden for the exceptional people who provide caring homes for 
children. Adoption proceedings and legal fees for some domestic 
adoptions can cost more than $40,000. To ease some of this burden, 
Congress adopted a $10,000 tax credit for adoption expenses. If we ask 
individuals to care for and adopt children, we must provide some relief 
from the financial burdens associated with that care. The adoption tax 
credit is an effective vehicle to provide this relief, and it is 
vitally important that this tax credit does not expire at the end of 
2010.
  In keeping with the celebration of adoption, this year I am proud to 
recognize Audrey Kirkpatrick as an Angel in Adoption. Audrey is a 
social worker with Catholic Social Services in Rapid City, SD. She is 
an integral part of Catholic Social Services offering her knowledge to 
fellow employees and often her services to birth mothers and adoptive 
families 24 hours per day.
  I am also proud to recognize the Amiotte family, whose portrait is 
displayed in my front office as a part of the Voice of Adoption 
Adoptive Family Portrait Project. David and Malinda Amiotte began their 
foster care experience not planning to adopt. However, after meeting 
and growing attached to biological siblings Medina and David, and 
biological sisters JoAnne and Karen, David and Malinda wanted to keep 
these sibling groups together. Despite challenges with the legal 
process, adoptions for all of their children have been finalized, and I 
wish them many years of happiness in the future.
  The commitment of adoptive parents in South Dakota and throughout our 
country to provide children with safe, permanent, and loving homes 
will, of course, have a positive impact on their lives. As we celebrate 
National Adoption Awareness Month and National Adoption Day, I call on 
my colleagues to continue supporting efforts to make adoption easier 
for parents, children, and other important participants in the adoption 
process.

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