Our President & CEO shares her personal story of adoption

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Our President & CEO Suzan Huntington shares her personal story of adoption. 

I was born in January 1971 to a mother addicted to drugs. I was immediately placed into foster care and adopted 32 days later by the right parents—my parents. I was raised in one household with a loving and caring family. Families are not perfect. They have their issues and baggage, but having my own family made a difference in becoming the person I am today. This is something I am more certain of now than ever before.

Since 1885, Boys & Girls Aid has worked to ensure every child has a family. We believe now, as we did then, children should be raised by families, not institutions. We know children growing up around people who provide love, stability and support will have better outcomes than children bouncing from home to home in the foster care system. We talk a lot about children in foster care and want to ensure we find them families. We share a lot of stories about foster care adoption and its importance. I’m often asked about our infant adoption program. So many of our advocates, supporters and donors created their families this way. We are still committed to infant adoption and our program’s focus of ensuring infants are being connected with loving families.

Of the infant placements we made last year, more than half would have ended up in foster care. And hopefully we would be able to share a positive story about their adoption from foster care, but it would be four or seven or more years from their birth. And the trauma and grief they would experience over that time would be exponential.

Since 1885, Boys & Girls Aid has worked to ensure every child has a family. We believe now, as we did then, children should be raised by families, not institutions.
— Suzan Huntington, Boys & Girls Aid President & CEO

It is this knowledge that has led me to believe had I not been adopted as an infant, my adoption story would look very different. The siblings I’ve had in my life since birth, the only parents I’ve ever known, and the support I’ve been provided through school, college and life—I know it would not have existed had it not been for the permanent, stable family who adopted me. Whether it is through infant adoption or foster care adoption, we want every child to experience the love of family.

I thank you for the care and support of the work we do at Boys & Girls Aid. I know you believe, as we do, that the success of our children is all about family.

 

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