AUSTIN, Texas — Twenty children in the Texas foster care system will officially join their forever families on Nov. 4 when 12 families finalize adoptions during Austin Adoption Day.
November is National Adoption Month. Austin Adoption Day celebrates adoption and highlights the need for adoptive families in Central Texas.
Lacy Vavra, an adoption prep supervisor for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), said adoption days held throughout the state in November present the opportunity to celebrate families of all shapes and sizes.
"Family isn’t always about blood, and it’s not always what people are born into. It’s about what you work for, and who you care for," Vavra said. "Every family that we are celebrating this week and the hundreds who have adopted over the past year have worked very hard to become that."
Last year's Austin Adoption Day was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, a press conference will be held at 11 a.m. on Nov. 1 at the Travis County District Court in Downtown Austin.
At the end of the fiscal year 2021, DFPS saw 4,586 children adopted, including 191 in Travis County. Statewide, there were 2,902 children still waiting to find their forever families.
Throughout FY 2021, 499 children in Travis County and approximately 15,987 in Texas were removed from their homes as a result of abuse or neglect.
The minimum age you must be to adopt a child in Texas is 21. Those interested in becoming a foster-to-adopt parent can log onto the www.adoptchildren.org website, which provides information on where to attend an adoption meeting and the requirements to become a foster-to-adopt parent. The website also features many of the children who are legally free for adoption and who want to find their adoptive families.
Each week, KVUE features children hoping to be adopted through our Forever Families series. KVUE launched Forever Families in 2020 in collaboration with Partnerships for Children (PFC). The series highlights children in the Heart Gallery of Central Texas who need secure and permanent families.
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