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"Encouraging Infant Adoption"Let me welcome all of you to the first annual adoption specialist conference, and let me applaud the national council for adoption for holding this important meeting. For President Bush and for me, there are few higher priorities than adoption. There are tens of thousands of children, of every age and race and background, who lack homes, parents and families. They deserve our best efforts to find them loving parents and secure, stable homes. That's why you're at this conference, and why I'm honored to offer my words of thanks for your commitment and your compassion. Let me highlight the wonderful work of Pat Bergstresser , the Director of Outreach for the training program, and the National Director of the Infant Adoption Training Program, Paul Devantier. They are true heroes in what the President calls "the armies of compassion," and I thank them for their noble efforts on behalf of America's children. Each of you shares in these efforts. Being an adoption specialist is a high calling. It is emotionally draining. It is time-consuming. It can be deeply painful as you deal daily with young women who, out of love, are giving up their little children. But being an adoption specialist can also be among the most affirming and most joyous of activities. To see the faces of adoptive parents as they welcome a longed-for child into their lives ... and to know that a little one is being placed in the arms of parents who will cherish him or her and provide the kind of home every child needs … these have to be among the most rewarding things any of us can imagine. Now, at this conference, you have the opportunity to share valuable information and deepen the profound and positive affect you already have on so many lives. So, please accept my best wishes as you launch the Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program of the National Council for Adoption. And best wishes to all of you in the days ahead as you continue to provide the highest level of professionalism, as well as great personal compassion, in helping families and children and young women in crisis all move on to a new era of hope in their lives. Thank you again, and may God bless you all. Last Revised: October 08, 2002 |
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