November is National Adoption Month, and as part of the month, the Florida Department of Children and Families is highlighting a service it offers to help certain adopted individuals find their birth families.
The goal behind Florida’s Adoption Reunion Registry is to reunite adopted adults with their birth families, which can include parents, grandparents, and siblings. DCF spokeswoman Alexis Lambert says it’s the only program of its kind in Florida that doesn’t require either party to take any court action.
“So, it’s not an active registry in that the department doesn’t go out to seek these matches,” said Lambert. “The two individuals that would be a match would both have to register and then we could connect them with each other.”
And, she says it has a pretty good success rate.
“We do about three to four successful matches a month, and that’s really just an average a month, so there’s much more,” she added. “So, three to four is a conservative estimate for connecting people with their conservative families.”
So far, over 10,000 people are listed in the registry. More than half are adopted adults. To participate, you must be over the age of 18, and there’s a $35 fee that goes toward running the registry. The fee can be waived if there is a proven financial hardship.
Click here for more information on the registry.
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