Every year the month of May is declared as Foster Care Awareness Month, both nationally and within the state. This question was recently posed to me: What is the difference between Foster Care Awareness Month in May and November’s National Adoption Awareness Month?

A fair question as it seems that they go hand in hand at times, but there is a reason that each is celebrated at different times of the year. In order to understand this, it is important to know that foster care and adoption have different end goals. Foster care can at times end in adoption, but did you know that foster care is not really about adoption?

Foster care is, first and foremost, about reunification of the biological family. When a person signs up to be a foster parent, they are stepping into a role of support. They are saying yes to caring for a child who has, by no fault of their own, been displaced from their biological family. Foster care is about taking someone else’s child into your home to love and protect while their biological parents work on correcting unsafe behaviors and learn how to parent in a safe and healthy way. Foster Care Awareness Month is a time to spotlight the need for healthy families to sign up and get licensed to become foster parents. It is a time to educate and dispel misunderstandings and misconceptions. It is a time to celebrate families who foster and the children they care for. It is a time to encourage support for foster families as they support the children in their care.

Adoption is about taking a child in with the sole purpose of raising them as your own child. Adoption is the solution to the problem of an orphaned child. A child who can no longer be raised, for whatever reason, by their biological parents. Adoption Awareness Month spotlights what adoption is, and educates on what the options are to adopt and how to get involved.

To sum up the difference and reasons for two separate months of awareness and celebration, foster care is, first and foremost, about a child reunifying with their biological family whenever possible, and adoption is all about a child becoming a part of a forever family apart from their biological family. It is because of the differences in initial end goals that these two topics are celebrated separately.

This is part one of four pieces outlining what foster care is, why we as believers should be involved, and how to get involved. Next up, dispelling common misconceptions about foster care with truth.

You can help support and encourage foster and adoptive families by donating to the FAM closet. Follow the link below to see the current needs.