On Wednesday, November 14, Voice for Adoption (VFA) held their 14th annual Adoptive Family Portrait Project on Capitol Hill. The annual event in Washington DC features a number of families who have adopted from foster care. Those families then have their picture and their stories posted on display in the offices of their Member of Congress or Senators in honor of National Adoption Month.
This year the in person event featured stories from four different families from across the country and awards were presented to advocates and supporters of adoption. This year’s presentations included comments from the Isbell family, Taylor family, the Depner family and the Molnar family from the states of Pennsylvania, Utah, Oregon, and West Virginia.
This 14th annual event theme for 2018 is “Families Bring You Home.” The annual event allows the coalition of adoption agencies and advocates to focus Capitol Hill attention on the importance of adoption. The event brings together members of Congress with adoptive families in their home state. It reminds members of the importance of adoption from foster care and the 123,000 children in foster care waiting to be adopted.
In addition to the event and the presentations by the families, this year’s VFA event included awards to Gail Johnson Vaughan whose past and current work promotes adoption and past work includes consulting, working for Families Now, the National Center on Adoption Permanency, and Sierra Forever Families. A second award of recognition was given to Adam Pertman, President and CEO of the National Center on Adoption and Permanency. Adam’s past work includes working for the Evan B. Donaldson Institute and contributing numerous commentaries and writings for several national news organizations and newspapers.
