[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12211-12212]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO PATRICK AND
                              LAURA MUNSON

 Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize Patrick 
and Laura Munson of Sioux Falls, SD, as my nominees for the 2016 Angels 
in Adoption Award. Since 1999, the Angels in Adoption Program, through 
the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, has honored over 
2,000 individuals, couples, and organizations nationwide for their work 
in providing children with loving, stable homes.
  Patrick and Laura's adoption story began when Patrick was finishing 
up his medical residency in Arkansas. Patrick and Laura, along with 
their three children, Jadon, Will, and David, decided to foster Micah, 
a boy born premature and coping with special needs.
  After hearing the statistics on children in foster homes, Patrick and 
Laura did not give a second thought;

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they knew that fostering Micah would give him the best chance to 
succeed. Soon after, the Munsons adopted Micah.
  While the Munson family will tell you that raising a child who has 
spent time in foster care can sometimes present its challenges, they 
fully and wholeheartedly embrace their life with Micah.
  Each year, awardees from all 50 States, plus the District of Columbia 
and Puerto Rico, are invited to come together in Washington, DC, to 
participate in events that celebrate their heroic actions and enable 
them to use their personal experience to effect change on a national 
level.
  It is important that we recognize families like the Munsons who 
fulfill the roles of foster and adoptive parents. They open their 
hearts and homes to children in need of loving families. These families 
have bestowed a gift onto others in an immeasurable way, and the impact 
of their love is profound. It brings me great pride to honor Patrick 
and Laura as my nominees for the 2016 Angels in Adoption Award.

                          ____________________