Proclamation 6076—National Adoption Week, 1989

During this week of Thanksgiving, most of us will gather with our families to offer thanks to God, not only for His gift of life but also for the many blessings we enjoy as individuals and as a Nation. Tragically, however, thousands of American children do not have a family to call their own this Thanksgiving. These are children waiting to be adopted.

Adoption is a generous and loving act that benefits everyone involved: the little ones who need a permanent home, the couples hoping to become parents, and the young women who face a crisis pregnancy. Each year, many babies are given the chance to be loved when their mothers choose adoption over abortion. Each year, some 60,000 children in the United States are adopted. However, some 30,000 children who are legally available for adoption still wait in foster care for a family of their own. Many of these are children with special needs -- children who have physical, mental, or emotional disabilities; older children; minority children; and children with siblings who need to be adopted by the same family. All of these children, however, have a wealth of love to share with their adoptive families. Encouraging their adoption is worthy of our greatest commitment.

Adoption provides a loving family and a lasting home to children who may have neither. It also can help address some of the most pressing issues facing our Nation today: issues such as teen pregnancy, welfare dependency, drug addiction, and child abuse.

Many Americans longing for a child are willing to adopt, yet they, too, wait. We must eliminate the public and private barriers to adoption opportunities, and we must heighten public awareness about adoption. Within the Federal Government, I have asked the heads of the departments and agencies to support the adoption plans and needs of civilian and military employees, and I have asked them to promote adoption among the work force. I have also proposed The Special Needs Adoption Assistance Act of 1989, designed to encourage and help facilitate the adoption of children with special needs.

During this National Adoption Week, as we acknowledge the importance of adoption to waiting children, let us also recognize the many Americans who work to place needy children in loving homes. These concerned individuals include thousands of foster parents, child welfare workers, pregnancy counselors, judges, lawyers, physicians, members of the clergy, legislators, volunteers, and adoptive family support groups. This week, let us also renew our determination to support both the courageous women who choose life for their children and the generous adoptive families who welcome needy children into their homes.

In order to encourage public awareness of adoption, and in recognition of all those who work to place waiting children with loving families, the Congress, by House Joint Resolution 278, has designated the week beginning November 20, 1989, as "National Adoption Week" and has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this week.

Now, Therefore, I, George Bush, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning November 20, 1989, as National Adoption Week. I call upon all Americans to observe this week with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fourteenth.

GEORGE BUSH