There are 112,000 foster kids waiting to be adopted in the U.S., and hundreds of millions more around the world in need of families. Adoption advocates are asking American families to step up to the plate and overcome the stigma associated with the process.
Adam Pertman gets a little tired of hearing well-meaning people commiserate with him about his family.
"Adoptive parents were told, and still sometimes are, 'Oh, I'm sorry you couldn't have any real children,' " he said. "Well, I'm an adoptive dad, and my kids look real."
Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, has heard hundreds of stories just like his. He said adoption has long been shrouded in secrecy -- and for no good reason.
"Adoption for most of its modern history was a secretive process," he said. "People couldn't even tell their own kids they were adopted. That's pretty secretive. And it is stigmatized."
He advocates raising children with the knowledge that they were chosen to be a part of the family. Janice Goldwater, founder of Adoptions Together, said there are millions of children waiting for that chance.
"Really there's no such thing as somebody else's child," she told Family News in Focus. "We all need to reach out to children."
