Currently 100,000 children in foster care across the country sit in limbo waiting to join forever families. The adoption group Families in Mississippi for Kids says that many of these children have special needs, come to foster care at a very young age, and often remain in the system until they are teens and age out. While foster care can be very difficult for children, adoptees have a much greater chance of success and often thrive when they find a permanent home. Take Destini Stanford of Hendersonville, NC for instance. Destini spent many years in foster care until she was adopted at age 16. Now, she has overcome habitual shyness to become a public spokesperson for foster children and the benefits of adoption.

Choosing to adopt allows parents to do a lot of good, both for the child who need a home and for themselves. Rather than having a first, second, or third biological child, prospective parents should consider adoption not as an alternative, but rather as an authentic way to experience parenting and share mutual love with a child who already exists and desperately needs to be loved. The Having Kids model encourages adoption, whether for one or all of a family’s children.