Nearly 129,000 children do not have a family to call their own in the United States. In the Houston area alone, more than 1,700 children are currently available for adoption. Houston’s oldest adoption and social services agency, DePelchin Children’s Center, hopes to decrease this number during National Adoption Month in November.

“With all of this support, you would think adoption would be more common than it is,” said Curtis C. Mooney, Ph.D., president and CEO at DePelchin Children’s Center, “but people choose not to adopt because of a variety of misconceptions. We are using National Adoption Month to explain how adoption really works in hopes of changing the staggering statistics.”

Here are the real facts about adoption: 

• Adoptive parents can be married, single, or divorced.
• You do not have to own your home. Adoptive parents can live in an apartment, condominium, or rent a home. A stable environment is sought for any adopted child, where ever that may be.
• Parental candidates do not need to be rich. There is little or no cost involved with the adoption of a child from foster care. In most cases, financial support will be provided by the state.
• Once a child is adopted, the biological or birth parent(s) cannot reverse the adoption. This misconception mostly comes from the movies or television. The truth is that once a judge has granted the adoption, they become a forever family and the birth parents have no legal rights to the child.
• Anyone over the age of 21 may adopt. Grandparents and empty-nesters are often great candidates. The addition of a child to their home often rejuvenates them through mutual joy and love.
• You do not have to adopt within the same race.  Many adoptive families consist of parents and children of mixed race. Of the children available for adoption in the Houston area, 75 percent are minority with 50 percent being of African American decent and 25 percent Hispanic.

“The phrase ‘Forever Family’ rings through the halls of DePelchin Children’s Center, which means once a person adopts a child, they are a family for life,” added Mooney. “With the holiday season right around the corner, it is the perfect time to adopt a child and welcome them into their new family.”

DePelchin Children’s Center offers complete adoption services to parents wishing to adopt a child in the foster care system or the mother or parents considering placing their unborn or new born child with a loving adoptive family. The agency also provides a full range of support services to parents who have adopted children that include counseling, support groups and search and reunion of adoptive children and their biological parents.

For more information call DePelchin Children’s Center at 713-730-2335 or visit www.depelchin.org.