America celebrates National Adoption Day on Saturday, November 17. In every state, courts and communities will come together to finalize thousands of adoptions of children from foster care.

The day brings hundreds of judges, attorneys, adoption professionals and child advocates together to complete adoptions and increase awareness of more than 110,000 children in foster care waiting to find permanent, loving homes.

Adoption Day events in Phoenix, Prescott and Tucson will celebrate finalizing the adoptions of more than 300 children. These and similar events in all 50 states will bring thousands of children into stable and loving families. I hope these events will encourage others to become a powerful difference in the life of a child.

We can be thankful for the 1,431 adoptions finalized last year for Arizona children. These adoptions would not be possible without the committed efforts of many community organizations, social workers, foster parents, lawyers, child advocates, judges, birth parents and volunteers.

The Attorney General's Office will continue to be a strong voice for Arizona's vulnerable children through our work representing the Department of Economic Security in Child Protective Services cases. Nearly 10,000 children are currently in out-of-home care in Arizona due to abuse, neglect or abandonment. More than 2,500 of these children have a case plan of adoption.

My wife and I are adoptive parents. That commitment is the most rewarding step our family has taken.

For more information about adoption, visit the Arizona Department of Economic Security Web site at www.azkidsneedu.gov or call 1-877-KIDS-NEED-U (1-877-543-7633).

Terry Goddard