This year, Nov. 17 will be celebrated nationwide in recognition of a special kind of family. Traditionally held the Saturday preceding Thanksgiving, National Adoption Day seeks to honor those who choose to adopt. The National Adoption Day Coalition initiated this day in 2000 as they finalized hundreds of adoption cases across the nation.

“National Adoption Day is definitely celebrated at my household,” junior Ryan Wolfson said. “I have parents who mean the world to me, just as my parents have a son who means the world to them.”

National Adoption Day also works to increase awareness of the large number of children in foster care, the current total of which is over 100,000.

“It’s important to raise awareness about foster care because everyone deserves to have a great home,” senior Samantha Locke said. “I was fortunate enough to be adopted and I think other kids should have the chance too.”

Each day, around 1,200 children are entered into foster care and on average, will remain in the system for over two years.

“I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it is to bounce around in foster homes,” junior Jade Reagan said. “I feel like I really lucked out.”

Almost 20 percent of children in foster care will stay in foster care for over five years and over 29,000 will leave the system only when they turn 18.

“Adoption helps not only the kid being adopted, but the parents who are given the special gift of a child,” Wolfson said. “If awareness is raised on adoption, many children and parents will be given the opportunity to live the life they desperately want.”

Adoption also tends to result in culturally diverse families; approximately one-third of adoptions involve parents of a different race than the child they adopt.

“Both my parents and I agree we have the best of both worlds,” senior Mattia Avery said. “They learn how to embrace my Chinese heritage while we struggle together to make Chinese foods and travel to Europe to see where their heritages began.”

The United States has been experiencing a rise in domestic adoption rates, with a six percent increase from 2000 to 2008.

“Overall, I think being adopted is nice,” Reagan said. “It should be known that it’s not a weird or bad thing; it’s actually kind of cool.”

Since 2000, almost 40,000 children have been welcomed into families on National Adoption Day. Four thousand five hundred foster children are expected by the National Adoption Day Coalition to be adopted this upcoming National Adoption Day.

“Being adopted has become a centerpiece of who I am as a person,” Wolfson said. “It’s not something to be ashamed of, as some feel, but something to be proud of. Adoption gives everyone involved a better life.”