Consider adopting older child
More than 4,000 waiting for families

"Why Not Me?" is the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) campaign to help children find adoptive families.

"Whether they are 7 or 17 years old, children never outgrow the need for parents," according to Joyce James, DFPS assistant commissioner for Child Protective Services.

In an era when many families seek foreign adoptions because there are not enough healthy infants to fill demand, older adoptable children often languish in foster care. A DFPS newsletter says 4,000 children in Texas are awaiting adoption, half of them older than nine.

"The older the child, the longer they wait for adoption and each day they ask themselves, 'Why not me? Why can't I have a family?'" according to DFPS.

During national Child Abuse Prevention month, DFPS is turning it around and asking Texas, "Why not you? Why not adopt an older child."

DFPS received a federal grant for increasing adoptions more than any other state in 2005, and they are using it for foster and adoptive parent recruitment and outreach programs.

Part of the campaign includes a website, www.AdoptChildren.org, that lets prospective adoptive parents see and read about children waiting for adoption.