WHEREAS, every child deserves a permanent, loving family and the opportunity to grow in a safe, stable, and trusted environment; and

WHEREAS, adoptive parents open their hearts and families to children in need of a home, providing them with love, hope, guidance and the opportunity for a healthy and productive future; and

WHEREAS, state agencies, courts, and public and private organizations here in Maine and across the nation are dedicated to finding families for children of all ages; and

WHEREAS, it is important that we remember all the children in Maine who are currently in foster care waiting for a loving family; and

WHEREAS, it is also important that we celebrate the 297 adoptions and the 73 children who received permanent guardianship in Maine during the past year; and

WHEREAS, Adoption Awareness Month is an opportunity to highlight the urgent need for adoptive families for children and youth in foster care, to honor and recognize the families formed through adoption, and to commend the many hardworking and caring professionals and advocates who further adoption efforts in our state;

NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Janet T. Mills, Governor of the State of Maine, do hereby proclaim November 2022 as

Adoption Awareness Month

throughout the State of Maine, and I urge all citizens to recognize the many children waiting to be adopted, the services of those working every day to place them in loving families, and the outstanding commitment provided by dedicated adoptive parents.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the Great Seal of the State to be hereunto affixed GIVEN under my hand at Augusta this tenth day of November Two Thousand Twenty-Two